


Richly Adorned

by snarry_splitpea



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossdressing, Dom/sub, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Virgin Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-03-02
Updated: 2012-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-18 21:10:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3584100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarry_splitpea/pseuds/snarry_splitpea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A celebratory romp through society parties and lingerie shops.  Quite literally a "model citizen" Harry Potter has to hide everything about himself from his girlfriend, his best friends, and the world. When he finds out he and Severus Snape have much in common, their relationship only becomes another one of his secrets. Will the proud Potions Master tolerate being a skeleton next to the knickers in Harry's closet?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [little_abyss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_abyss/gifts).



****  
"Mrs. Potter has retained her figure through the pregnancy?" the shop-staff asked Harry as he inspected the armload of garments she'd collected for him. Moments prior, Harry had slid past the meager handful of other customers, expertly avoiding looking at them as he always did. Once at the counter, he asked in a whisper for all the latest styles in "the usual size."

"Ugh, I... um... well she..." Harry sputtered as his loathing for lies battled with his instinct of self-preservation. Among muggles, Harry was a celebrity simply for being a print-model. He'd stumbled into the career much the way he'd stumbled into defeating Voldemort multiple times. He hadn't been aware that muggles paid attention to rumors about him.

"No man would notice a growing waistline when there are fuller breasts and the glow of motherhood to be observed." said a voice from behind Harry. The same velvet-tone of silk on razorblades that had haunted Harry for years crept up the back of Harry's neck and he wasn't immediately struck by how close Snape had chosen to stand.

"Oh! Of course not!" the clerk giggled, her voice a delightful peal that roused Harry from the trance Snape's had instantly put him under. "I'll go in the back and pull out some things from our maternity collection in a larger size, then. Shall I?"

Harry sputtered again but she didn't stay for an answer.

"So, Mr. Potter. An affair after less than a year? You never were one to stick with anything. Quidditch came and went. Dumbledore's Army: Tragically short-lived. Even your endorsement career has shown a lack of loyalty. Flourish and Blotts then Tomes a Billion. Astonishing." Severus observed casually as he plucked a tiny camisole from the top of Harry's pile of prospective purchases.

Severus had always been adept at pushing Harry's buttons, but he so rarely hit below the belt after the war. Harry Potter was most definitely not having an affair. He hadn't been allowed to continue playing Quidditch back at Hogwarts. The need for Dumbledore's Army had quickly evaporated. Flourish and Blotts hadn't renewed their contract with him after he questioned their lack of muggle literature. Then Tomes a Billion donated galleons toward expanding Muggle Studies programs in wizarding schools, worldwide. He had his reasons and he didn't need to explain any of them to Severus Bloody Wanker Snape. Especially since he had no idea what Severus was getting at.

"What are you on?" Harry asked as he snatched the silky garment away from Snape. "You think you know so much, but none of this is any of your business."

"Oh, but I do "know so much" as you've put it." Severus grinned. Harry always hated it when his former professor grinned. His smile was never joyous and always made Harry feel like a tiny field mouse about to be devoured by a big, black snake. "Ginerva Weasley, a busty girl with a Quidditch-player build and childbearing hips inherited from her mother, would never in her life fit into these ensembles. They are small and shapeless, more suited to meek or masculine forms. The "usual size," indeed."

Harry gulped, feeling that perhaps Severus did "know so much." He was only relieved that the man had come to the conclusion that Harry was cheating and not that he was some pervert in a pair of knickers. Which he was.

"Should you be eyeing my girlfriend like that?" Harry squeaked. He'd hoped to sound bigger and angrier. Perhaps the reluctantly balled fist communicated his feigned ire. He was mostly just scared and wanted to leave. He eyed the door, wondering how the muggle clerk would feel if he left without buying anything. After all, she couldn't use magic to restock the storeroom.

"Well you certainly aren't. Did you start the pregnancy rumor just to cover your tracks, Mr. Potter?"

Harry paled. He and Ginny hadn't started the pregnancy rumor at all, but both were reluctant to interview and the gossip had only spread as they refused to comment. How did Snape know he'd never touched her?

Oh, of course! Snape didn't know. Anyone with proper sense could see that Ginny wasn't pregnant and Severus only wanted to get Harry worked up. Harry sighed, hoping a bit of color had returned to his cheeks.

"I am not cheating on my girlfriend, Severus Snape." Harry gritted out in less of a squeak.

Snape's left brow perked and he allowed his eyes to take a trek down and back up the length of Harry's body. He then glanced at the pile of lace to the younger man's right. Suddenly, seeming satisfied with his assessment, he met Harry's eyes and purred a silky "Ah, I see." before leaving the boutique through the front door.

Harry's heart lurched to a complete stop. Snape didn't see. His unbeating heart dropped into his belly. Did he?

He left a generous tip for the soon-to-be-overworked clerk and stumbled into a dressing room to apparate out.

Harry heard Ginny calling his name repeatedly and eventually came to himself. The memory of that chance encounter with Snape had drowned him in anxiety and he tried his best to not look distressed when he turned to his girlfriend. Ginny Weasley shook the magazine at him.

"I was asking if you knew whether or not Professor Snape had a girlfriend. You two always seem to chat when we're at those stupid parties, but he never brings anyone with him." Ginny repeated.

"A... a girlfriend?" Harry asked, baffled by the question.

"Yes, sweetheart. Someone he's going to panty shops to buy thongs and nipple-pasties for."

"But he didn't buy anything."

"What? How do you know?" Ginny frowned as she opened the magazine and turned back to the article about their former teacher.

Harry snatched the gossip rag from her and eyed the moving photo of Snape continuously exiting the shop door looking smug and self-absorbed. He was again nauseated by how close he'd been to getting caught. He never gave Ginny dainty gifts. She was an athletic tomboy through and through. That's one reason he'd imagined he could be happy asking her to live with him. If someone had seen him leaving a lingerie shop, she'd surely suspect he was buying panties for some other woman. She'd be devastated. She was already suffering by dating a man that never touched her.

"Uh... he doesn't have any parcels. He didn't buy anything. See?"

"Oh, well, sure... but he could have shrank them and tucked them into a pocket, yeah?" Ginny took a quick glance at the page as she moved out of their kitchen to grab a sweater.

"Um... you said it was in muggle London, though. He wouldn't shrink his bags in front of muggles." Harry watched as she reappeared near the line in the floor that separated the linoleum of their kitchen from the carpet of their living room. She was still pulling the sweater over hear head as she talked.

"True, true... hmmm. But he still went into the shop. There's a reason." Ginny responded. She blew him a kiss and slipped on a pair of rain boots before grabbing an umbrella at the front door.

"I suppose." Harry murmured as the door closed behind Ginny.

The next time Harry saw Severus Snape was at a gala event hosted by Tomes a Billion. Harry hated the advertisement banners that showed him browsing books in their flagship store and talking about the great selection and budget-conscious prices. Thankfully they were all muted for the affair. Ginny unlatched his arm the moment she eyed her Hogwarts classmates and Snape appeared at his side the moment she was gone.

Harry had managed to shake off the anxiety of nearly being discovered by his former teacher and then the rest of the wizarding world at the lingerie shop in the previous month. He didn't want Snape coming around working on his nerves, again. He was already regretting his choice of undergarments for the night and didn't need Snape aggravating him, further.

"A pleasure to see you, professor. Goodnight." he said quickly as he downed his glass of champagne in a single gulp and dashed away on the pretense of grabbing another. He briskly crossed the ballroom in a manner that had to look awkward. All of his most recent lingerie purchases had been bright-colored and stiffly starched. He usually enjoyed the idea of being secretly beautiful and trendy under his dress robes, but the lace used to form the latest style was scratching against his nipples and making him strongly consider shaving his bollocks.

Thankfully, Snape wasn't the type to follow a person around like a lost dog. Once Harry was on the other side of the room, he was relatively safe from ridicule. However, he was not at all safe from Snape's gaze. Eyes seemed an innocent thing next to Snape's razor wit and tongue, but they were just as deadly if not more so. The looks went from amused, as if he had some secret knowledge about Harry that he found laughable to piercing as if he could undress the younger man with a glance. Harry rather liked to believe the idea of Severus undressing him was sickening, but he felt a stir underneath his dress robes that spoke volumes of the opposite.

Said stir pressed his usually disinterested and placid cock harshly against the inflexible lace of his new panties. The sensation was anything but comfortable and all thigh flexing done in an attempt to discreetly scratch only helped to make him harder.

As the evening drew to a close, Harry began to regret imbibing his last three or four drinks. He thought being drunk would make him too relaxed to maintain an erection. He'd never been very good at thinking. Giddy, he did his best to discourage hugs as he gave his goodbyes. Vowing to never wear lace again, he was sure that if Severus Bloody Wanker Snape could give him a boner, anything could. Perhaps, he was regressing and would have the hormonal reactions of a teenage boy to every passing bloke?

Bloke.

The idea of needing to talk to Ginny about very important things very soon was very daunting. Feeling mildly terrified helped to curb his enthusiasm just a bit. Enthusiasm sufficiently doused, he was glad that the itching stopped. He was also glad to be able to hug Molly Weasley when she approached. His fear turned into horrible guilt. Even under Verituserum he'd be able to say that he loved Ginny and had asked her to date him because he wanted to be with her forever. It was only later that he began to see something was wrong with him.

The word "wrong" eventually evolved into "different" as he found he simply wasn't attracted to women. In his teen years Harry had responded with equal vigor to fantasies about both genders. He'd never had a real crush other than Cho. His brain melting around Fleur didn't count. Realizing he was recounting his entire life story in his own head as if preparing for Molly to ask him about his sex-life, Harry gave his would-be mother-in-law another squeeze around her girdled waist and let her go.

"I love you, Mrs. Weasley." he said to her in a voice more slurred than he'd expected. She gave him an amused smile and pat on the head. After kissing Harry on the cheek, Molly glided across the dance floor with a straight-backed walk she never used at home. Arthur gave a jovial wave from the door and he flailed his arm in response. Good God, when had he gotten so drunk?

"Itchy?" a dark voice ghosted across the back of Harry's neck. He tensed as much as his drunken state would allow and whipped around. Once facing Severus, he saw the man was bent slightly to match Harry's much shorter height. Though the synapses dribbled more than fired, he realized that Snape had been breathing on his neck on purpose. To his horror, he realized he liked it.

"I'm with Ginny." he blurted out.

"I'm aware." Severus blandly stated, his breath ghosting across Harry's lips before straightening to his full height.

Harry stared up at Severus for longer than he'd intended. Snape was not pretty. He was all hard edges and his face and neck had a tad too much skin. There were wrinkles that hadn't been there when Harry was a first year and slight discolorations on his cheeks and forehead from healed wounds and age. Severus' eyes were striking with their darkness but otherwise unimpressive. His lips were thin and always criticizing. His nose was a large, unattractive hook.

Yet, somehow Harry wanted those lips on his throat. He wanted that nose pressed behind his ear, nuzzling into his hair. He wanted to put his hands on his former teacher's face and see his own skin, taut and vibrant, contrasted against Severus' papery folds. Not only was he a sick fuck wearing ladies underwear to a perfectly respectable party, he wanted to jump some old guy's bones on the dance floor.

"Mr. Potter, you act as if you've somehow seen a ghost."

Harry shook his head. He always forgot to avert his eyes away from Snape, but trusted the man not to read his mind without permission. As for the ghost remark, they'd already had that argument. Severus had disappeared to South America for months, directly after Voldemort's demise. After the scene in the shrieking shack, Harry had lived in turmoil over his supposed death. Upon Snape's return, Harry was hysterical. The younger man had made a few regrettable remarks as well as thrown a few regrettable punches. Severus, always classy when it could serve to make another person look like an idiot, had simply righted his robes after the assault. He wasn't too classy, however, to forego giving Harry a verbal dressing down.

Apparently, wizarding deaths were recorded in some ridiculous book in the Ministry and all Harry had to do was look at it to know Severus survived. He'd taken another of his many opportunities to call Harry a stupid, impulsive boy and that had been the end of it.

Well, the end of that discussion at least. There seemed to be no end to Harry being forced to spend time in the same room as Severus Snape. Snape was just as much a hero as he and, if not for the Black estate joining the Potter fortune, just as rich. They were invited to the same parties, ceremonies, and dinners. They were on the covers of the same magazines. Snape, a man that had seemed so private during Harry's Hogwarts years, approached the life of a celebrity with the same grace and confidence he approached potions with. Harry had always imagined the man to be poisonously hot-tempered. He wondered if Snape had changed or if Harry was the only person that made him fly off the handle.

"Seeing as you seem incapable of answering my original question, I'll save you the effort and simply leave you with some advice." Severus began. Harry blushed as he remembered what question had started the conversation.

"The less-costly, lower-quality pieces, usually of a spandex/poly blend will stretch sufficiently when times are," Severus paused for effect and to darken his smirking look into something breathtakingly powerful, "...hard."

Before Harry could force out the breath he hadn't realized he'd held, Severus was gliding toward the door with the same stiff gait as Molly.

Jarred back into reality by his girlfriend's sudden attachment to his arm, Harry steadied his breathing and hoped Ginny attributed any subsequent awkwardness to the alcohol. Despite his intoxication, his cock was hard again and making a mess of his lace knickers with slow but steady pulses of precome. He didn't want to imagine what horribly embarrassing thing would have happened if Snape had kept talking to him. The idea that Severus was old, ugly, and sadistic barely overrode the fact that Severus knew and seemed to approve of exactly the kind of pervert Harry was. In fact, Harry was beginning to wonder if old, ugly, and sadistic was just the sort of thing he wanted.

Severus was already in Harry's favorite boutique when he arrived the following day. As the door clicked shut, Harry took note of Snape's backside. The professor was dressed as a muggle. Harry realized Snape had probably been in muggle clothes the last time, but he'd been in no position to savor the sight. Pants of pressed denim clung to Snape's slender, but muscled thighs like a second skin and disappeared into his calf-high, leather boots. With his white shirt tucked in and a thin belt at his hips, Severus looked almost like he was ready to ride a horse right off the cover of a romance novel. His waist was impossibly narrow and something about the shape of his torso tickled at Harry's subconscious but the younger man was too struck by the gestalt of Snape's appearance to concentrate.

The owner emerged from the storeroom and her gaze fell on Harry with an overjoyed smile. Severus finally turned. Harry shrank under Snape's gaze, as he usually did.

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter! I was surprised when you left the other day. I was hoping I hadn't offended you." the woman said as she rounded the counter to give Harry a hug. Harry was quite fond of the old seamstress and was embarrassed to even ask if she made anything out of stretchy polyester, considering her whole shop was filled with hand-woven and vintage lace.

"Oh, not at all. I was called away. I apologize."

"Dear boy, no apologies necessary. I know how it is with pregnancies. Thank goodness you kids have cellphones so you can go running in an emergency. Is she okay?"

Harry tried not to notice Severus perking a brow over the woman's shoulder. With his arms folded across his chest and posture ramrod straight, Severus even looked threatening when amused. Harry wanted to back out of the door and never return. He hadn't even realized he'd been growing rigid in his panties until mention of Ginny had him wilting.

"Ah, it wasn't a pregnant call, but yes... she’s great. And cellphones. Yes. Cellphones and emergencies." Harry mumbled.

"Retained your talent for incoherent speech, I see." Severus chuckled from the counter. Harry had never heard the man chuckle and looked to see if perhaps he'd mistaken someone else for his worst nightmare.

"You know each other?" the shop-staff asked with a grin.

"Why yes, Claudia. Mr. Potter is a former student of mine." again, Severus' tone was anything but scathing. Harry was suddenly jealous that this woman obviously got to see a side of Severus he hadn't even known existed.

"Oh, how awkward then to run into each other, here." the woman smiled at Harry.

Awkward didn't begin to describe what it was to see Snape at a lingerie shop when Harry was there to take his advice on panty choices.

She then turned to Severus, "Perhaps you'd like to discuss the rest of your transaction in my office, then?"

"Not at all." Severus peeled his gaze from Harry to settle on the seamstress.

"Ah..." she glanced from Snape to Harry and then shrugged. Approaching her cash register, she rattled off the particulars of Snape's order. "Well then, that's two in the Claudette style. One in the ice-blue brocade and the other in black PVC. Then there's the Josephine in brown, distressed leather. All twenty-six inches with steel boning and color-coordinated, coated grommets. Let me remind you that the coating will chip and that was your request, not my suggestion. In any case, any preference when it comes to laces, Severus?"

"Surprise me."

"Of course, dear. That's half, up-front and half upon pick-up. Alright, love? Two-hundred and twenty-six."

"The thigh-highs for the black Claudette?" Severus inquired.

"That's included, love. As are the gloves, garter-belt, and mask. I just thought you'd like me not to mention them." She glanced at Harry on the word "not."

Severus chuckled, again.

Somehow, Harry felt he'd been allowed in on some dark secret as he watched Severus pass the muggle woman a credit card. Brocade, boning, grommets, and laces. They all had some meaning that Harry couldn't quite grasp. He definitely knew what PVC was and felt both disgusted and intrigued by the idea of encasing his limbs in the stuff. He wondered who Severus shopped for.

Staring after the man as he left the store, Harry felt shocked that Snape hadn't taken another moment to insult him. He seemed surprisingly well-behaved in front of Claudia. Perhaps he was avoiding giving Harry the urge to hex him in front of a muggle.

"Er... we're, uh... looking for new knickers, now." Harry finally worked up the courage to talk when he was sure Severus was gone. "Stretchier. The lace is a bit uncomfortable."

"Oh, yes. With the weight-gain it's nice to be able to adjust. Same size or a tad larger?"

Harry wondered if having more room to expand would help or hurt. He purchased multiple styles in multiple colors and sizes.

"What a lucky girl you've got at home, Mr. Potter!" she beamed, "You spoil her so much!"

Harry gave a lopsided grin as he left the store. He tried not to contemplate his nerves and guilt as he walked away from the store with his head down. He could only apparate out of a dressing room when Claudia was in the storeroom or at least busy with another customer. She'd stood at the counter and given him the absolute best customer service as he pretended to browse a bit longer. Seeing that she wanted to stick around in case he needed her, Harry finally slid out the front door.

"Potter. Follow me." Harry heard Severus's voice but saw nothing. He paused long enough to take a few bewildered looks around.

Harry looked down and saw a small, glowing squirrel looking imploringly up at him as it stood on its hind legs. Confused, he took a step toward the tiny animal and it galloped a few feet away only to turn and look at him, again. The voice repeated itself and after another look around, Harry was following a squirrel through London, trying to look nonchalant. Thankfully, whenever he stopped to check his surroundings or heft his surprisingly heavy bag, the squirrel stopped to wait for him. Nobody else seemed to notice the animal or the voice. Harry shrugged both off as some interesting bit of magic.

Finally, he was standing on the fourth floor of a tall apartment building. The place seemed nice and hadn't had any security out front like the place Remus and Tonks lived in. The squirrel finally stopped running up stairs and stopped to scratch on the door into the hallway. Once Harry opened the door, the creature dashed off and he followed it to an apartment. He rattled the handle and wasn't surprised when it didn't open. He inspected the door and the squirrel that was waiting patiently in front of it.

"Snape, I didn't know you were a squirrel-animagus." he whispered down to the animal as he bent slightly at the knee.

"That's because I'm not, you idiot boy." Severus snarled. Harry jumped. One glance away and he hadn't even realized the door had opened.

"But... but your voice..."

"Recorded onto your glasses. Potter, you've gone incredibly soft after the war. I could have wandlessly hexed the nose from your face and you wouldn't be any the wiser." Snape perked a brow at Harry and said, "Finite Incantatem."

"Oh!" Harry said, a grin on his face as he looked back down at the shimmering animal, "You have a squirrel patronus!"

"No, you imbecile I do not have a squirrel patronus! You know very well what my bloody patronus is! SHUT UP and come inside!" Snape barked as he snatched Harry through the threshold and snapped another wandless finite incantatem at the woodland creature. The squirrel, suddenly surprised and incredibly confused, ran around in a circle before darting down the hall toward the stairs.

The older man sighed as he closed his door behind the two of them. When Severus turned to Harry, however, he could only roll his eyes. Harry Potter looked absolutely crestfallen.

"What. Is. It." Only Snape could make a simple question sound like a hex.

"You.... you used imperious on a squirrel?"

"Damn it! How can you be so obtuse ninety-nine percent of the time? It's a simple homing spell. It uses an animal's natural instinct for finding the place it came from. The incantation replaces their actual home with the caster's. I modified the Latin to make it believe you were one of its young."

As Severus spoke, he shucked off his jacket and hung it on the rack near the door, drawing Harry's eye with every movement. Harry was shocked to see a black, metal structure holding Snape's miscellany of muggle coats and absolutely no wizard robes. Struck by the thought, he turned to eye the rest of the room. Despite being rather cramped, considering how easily Snape's presence seemed to fill a room and suffocate the other occupants, Severus' living room felt well-lit and open. The white walls reflected the sunlight streaming in through Snape's uncovered windows. The wall opposite the entrance displayed three, large photographs. In thin, black frames with wide, white mats where three black and white photos unlike anything Harry had ever seen.

Intrigued, he stepped around Snape to move closer. He approached them slowly, taking in the three very different but obviously related abstract pieces. Each was a collection of lines like looking at partially constructed or deteriorating buildings from odd angles. Each moved. Not like a wizard painting that had some essences of the people and animals portrayed, but like a few moments caught on camera. Panning left, right, back and forth. Flying around, underneath and over. The photos seemed to celebrate the metal beams, nuts, bolts, and screws. Harry had never even noticed the art around him, but these photos were beautiful. A mixture of muggle technology and magic. They moved him.

"Any thoughts, Potter?" Severus asked, his voice soft and nearby.

"You think I'm smart?"

"What?"

"The... the other..." Harry realized he truly did sound like an idiot. "Theotheronepercentofthetime."

Severus huffed at him and snatched the bag of ladies underwear from his hand. Pulling Harry into a possessive kiss, the underwear tossed aside and forgotten, Severus walked the two of them toward his couch. Harry, whom had entered the kiss with shock and confusion, passionately devoured his former teacher's mouth while straddling the man's hips. His knees digging into the couch felt strange and the shift from shorter than Severus to overtaking him inspired a rush that made Harry's cock ache for friction.

He'd never been grabbed, before. He'd never stumbled across a room, lost in desire, before. Harry had never wanted someone with such blind need, before. He'd never just not cared how bad or good he was at kissing as long as the kiss never ended. He groaned as Severus pulled away from his lips and began to blaze a trail of subtle bites along his neck. He wanted to know what that was like. To bite someone.

Sliding backwards, closer to the edge of the couch, Harry leaned down and kissed just under Snape's jaw. The man seemed to vibrate as if purring and Harry was dizzy with power. He'd never felt so wanted. Without remark, Severus tilted his head back to give Harry better access.

Rearranging himself so that he could wrap his arms around Severus, Harry met strong resistance around Snape's abdomen. At first he imagined that despite his lithe frame, Severus was so well-muscled that there was nothing to give in to embracing arms. Then, he realized the sensation was familiar. Women in ballrooms.

"You're..." Harry pulled back to look Snape in the eyes. Said eyes were dark and looked practically drunk with lust.

"Yes."

"You're wearing a bloody corset!" Something in Harry's face must shown amusement or apprehension as he spoke, because Snape rose to the challenge.

"Which knickers do you have on, Mr. Potter? A dainty lace number that's ripping under the pull of your hard cock against the inside of your jeans? Perhaps a more resilient and less absorbent spandex piece? Is the purpling head of said cock smearing the front, making a dark stain across pastel flowers?"

A shudder went through Harry and both his hands dove into Snape's hair as their lips reunited. Lips still connected, Harry reached between their bodies to undo his jeans. He wanted to be touched. He wanted to be out of his clothes. He wanted another human being to finally see his skinny boy-hips jutting over the waistline of delicate girl-garments. Severus pulled out of the kiss, again, but this time gave Harry an incredulous look.

"Keep your knickers on, boy! I'm not going to sleep with you." Severus spat as he pushed Harry off of him and onto the floor. Harry only narrowly missed Snape's coffee table because he'd been pushed to the right of it.

Sprawled on the rug with his legs bent at awkward angles and fly unbuttoned, Harry looked every bit the bewildered, naive student that had been thoroughly debauched by his teacher. As a man that loved to play mindgames, Severus closed his eyes against the tempting sight.

"I won't be your paramour, Potter. Figure out what you want to do with yourself and we'll talk again once you've decided."

"I didn't start this! You brought me to your house like some old pervert at a nightclub!"

"If I were like some pervert at a nightclub I would have had you pressed against the side of that boutique with your face grating against a brick wall. It would have been quite a show for the paparazzi. I'm sure they'd love to snap photos of me plunging mercilessly into your flat ass." Baggy jeans or not, Snape saw Harry's cock twitch as he spoke. He never should have opened his eyes! Gathering up all the malice he would fake, Severus growled, "Now, get up, button your pants, and LEAVE."

"You're crazy! You old bastard, you're a schizophrenic tease! Why'd you even do this? Bringing me here you old... crazy... fuck..." Harry shouted as he stood and fumbled with his pants. They were sliding down his hips and he didn't know why he hadn't worn a smaller size. Frustrated, he pulled them up and tried to hold the waist steady with an elbow in another attempt to button them. He felt like a small boy, again. Embarrassed and fuming at the Potions Master.

"I did this to save your life. I'm rather in the habit, now." Harry heard Severus say. The soft tone took him by surprise and his fumbling fingers froze on his waistband. Severus' slender hands came into view and gently swatted Harry's away. He expertly slid the thick, metal button into place and righted Harry's waistband with a single tug.

Their eyes met and Harry was sure all the anger had drained out of his face. Lips pursed and brow not-quite-so-critical, Severus heaved a sigh.

"Go home to your girlfriend, Potter."

Harry felt like a real heel when Ginny shook an issue of Witch Weekly in his face a few weeks later.

"What are you doing buying thongs and nipple-pasties at a panty shop!?" she screeched at him as she tossed the magazine onto his lap during breakfast. There was a picture of a very embarrassed Harry Potter continuously exiting the boutique holding a bag filled to the brim with multicolored fabrics. The headline flashed "Playtime for Ginny!" and Harry was glad the public assumed he was a normal man doing normal things for his normal girlfriend. Ginny knew better.

"Honey, I just..."

"Look, Harry if you don't want me. If I'm not your type. Harry just... if it's not working out. I just... just for the love of Merlin, just fucking leave me! Kick me the fuck out! Don't fucking cheat on me with some other fucking..."

By the time her rant had dissolved into incoherent shouting, Harry had summoned the bag of his most recent purchases down the stairs. The white, paper bag landed on the table near Ginny's breakfast plate and she blinked at it in sudden silence.

"I wasn't sure what size to get." he said, unable to look at her as she poked the overflowing bag.

She took his averted gaze as embarrassment and smiled at him. "Oh God, Harry. I'm sorry. Thank you. I know you'd never do me wrong."

Harry stood up from the table, still not quite able to meet Ginny's gaze. He glanced at her a few times before walking toward the door to grab his coat. Coat in hand, he stood staring at it for a moment. He knew leaving would just make her feel guilty. He knew he didn't want to make her feel guilty. Yet, he couldn't cope with his own guilt well enough to sit still and finish his food.

"Harry, I didn't mean it. I just... it's just... you and me, we just have this whole... thing between us. I never know what to think."

Harry stalked back over to the breakfast table to give Ginny a hug. An awkward hug. It felt and looked exactly like what it was, an afterthought and grudging obligation.

"I love you, Ginny. I know you love me. We have... a... thing. Yes. Between us. I'm sorry about it." He managed to make his eyes meet hers. She looked confused but unsurprised. "We do love each other, though. I do love you. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known and the only one I've ever loved."

"Harry, I feel like there's a "but." I know when you're talking and you're only telling me half."

"But... I didn't know anything about myself a year ago." He could have said "8 months ago," alluding to the day she moved in but couldn't bring himself to do it.

"...and now you do?"

"And now I know a little more."

"Ah."

"Ginny, don't shut down like this."

"I'm not shutting down. I'm just thinking." she said, finally pulling the bag off of the table to look at its contents. "You want me to dress sexier?"

"What? No! I mean, it's fine if you want to, but I'm not asking you to change. I just wanted to get something nice."

"Something... sexy. For sex. For us to have sex." Ginny seemed more confused than anything, but there was a glint of excitement in her eyes.

Harry's look of terror couldn't have been encouraging.

"Harry, I know seeing thousands of redheads at all of my family gatherings scares the shit out of you. It freaks me out, too. It's one reason I moved in with you. You remember? So I could get out of that crowded house."

"No it's not that, it's just that I need to figure out..."

"There are things we can do, yeah? Spells, potions, other stuff. I'm not going to get knocked up and pop out seventeen babies at our first go."

"No, Ginny, it's just something we've got to work out. I've got to work out..."

"I mean, I know mom was pregnant when they got married... and grandma... and Fleur... and Angelina..."

"Ginny, you're not listening. It's not about kids it's just that maybe I'm..."

"...and most of my aunts. Oh, but Harry, come on! I don't even want kids! I want a home of my own, to keep playing with The Canons, and even though I complain, I -like- all your stupid society-parties. The last thing we need is a fucking ba..."

"Ginny, maybe I'm gay!"

Ginny's lack of response couldn't have been encouraging.

Harry returned her blank expression for a full minute, hoping he hadn't really just said that.

"That's what Cho said." Ginny finally stated. She seemed to be speaking through a trance.

"That's... Cho... what?"

"Cho said you were gay. Told most of the school." Ginny stood up and began clearing the breakfast table as if her entire life hadn't just upended itself, "I figured she's a pretty, popular girl that's not used to rejection. I gave her a right beating for that one."

"She... You what?"

"I kicked her ass, Harry." Ginny stopped and looked at him as if he were an idiot. Actually, he really was an idiot. "I beat the shit out of her and made her friends heal her. I told her that if I ever got in trouble for it, I'd do it again since I'd be getting expelled, anyway."

Harry gaped at her.

"I suppose I owe Cho an apology." Ginny murmured to herself as she resumed her cleaning. Without pausing as she crossed the room to collect pans off the stove, she asked, "Did you cheat on me?"

Harry nearly fainted from the shift in the conversation.

"No. I've never cheated on you. I did..." memories of Severus flashed through Harry's head, "I've considered it. I mean... just to see if I'm right, you know? I'm still a virgin. I don't even know what I want. I'd do anything for you. I'd die for you, Gin... but I just don't. I don't know about... other... things."

Ginny turned to stare at Harry. Her face changed as if she were seeing him for the first time. Her look softened more than he'd ever expected it to after that confession and she simply frowned at him.

"I understand if you hate me. I understand if your whole family will hate me and I can never see any of you, again. ...I suppose I'll lose Hermione by default. Shit." Harry didn't feel any remorse for who he was, but felt a ton of it for dragging Ginny into his journey of self-discovery. Perhaps that's why people always said "fools rush in."

"You've never... with anyone?" Ginny asked.

"Ah... what?"

"You've never had sex? Not with Cho. Not with a boy. Not with anyone?"

"I've... snogged."

"Well I know that. I've bloody snogged you. But... I mean... you do know I'm not a..."

"I know." Harry responded, "That's not important to me."

"Harry, it's important to me!" Ginny said, her eyes pleading and her voice going shrill. She turned her back on him, trying to maintain some level of control over her voice and actions. She approached the sink with her pile of cookware. "I don't want to raise you, Harry. I want to marry a fully-grown man whenever I settle down. Imagine if we'd not moved in together before you proposed, love? I'd be married to a very confused boy that had never stepped out into the world to experience things on his own."

Harry didn't quite know how he felt about that. He'd toppled a Dark Lord! Wasn't that man enough? He supposed he was lucky she wasn't yelling.

"So, you're not angry with me?" Harry ventured to ask.

"Angry!!! Fucking Angry!?" Ginny tossed the dishrag she'd just picked up back into the sink, "Harry, I'm livid! I want nothing more than to bash your stupid face in!"

Harry backed toward the door.

"But... of course I'm grateful, too." Ginny added, her voice lowering.

"Grateful?"

"Harry, love. Darling. Shit! Shit, you know?" She was crying, then. Harry wanted to hold her. He wanted to give her a real hug and apologize for the stupid, scared one he'd given her earlier. He wanted to comfort her but knew better than to try and touch her.

"I'm glad I know, now." Ginny continued, "I'm glad I'm finding this out. You know... before we'd run off to do something stupid. I'm glad you didn't try to prove something to me or yourself or my family or the public and we were like sitting here with a baby between us. I'm glad that if you are... you know... that. You didn't have your first time with some girl and think sex was horrible. I'm glad I don't have to be your..."

Harry sighed and looked away as she tapered off. He knew she thought she was getting to a touchy subject.

"You're glad you don't have to be my mum. I know."

"I won't tell anybody, you know. That's up to you. I respect that."

He met her eyes. Was she really considering not breaking up with him? How could they not?

"You not making me pay bills here means I've got enough to get my own place. I'll tell my family it's none of their business. I'll tell the press it's none of their business. We'll still be friends." Ginny said, a sad and obviously forced smile breaking out across her face. He loved her for trying to smile for him. For understanding this was hard on him, too. "We WILL still be friends. You're right about all that love and shit. We've just... we've just got this -thing- between us. That's all."

Ginny was the one to initiate the hug. Harry was glad to have the chance to put her head on his shoulder and rub her back. He didn't whisper any apologies as they stood there. He just let the hug speak for both of them.

The week between Harry and Ginny breaking up and Ginny actually moving out wasn't awkward at all. He slept on the couch out of respect for their changed roles. She sorted through his bag of panties for the ones that fit her, leaving the rest for him to return. He never found the courage to tell her the real reason he'd purchased them. Neither of them seemed particularly happy, but the lack-of-sex that had hung heavy in the air of the two lovers had blown away from the home of the two friends.

"We could be roommates?" Harry suggested as Ginny stood at the door, her shrunken miscellany of belongings in a single, red suitcase.

"Trust me, sweetheart. We couldn't. I'd eventually rape you. I'd also beat up any bloke you brought home." Ginny said with a wicked grin, "I'm not some golddigger or famechaser, you know. You're truly going to be a hard act to follow."

Harry grinned at her. Even as the baby sister of a large family, she'd learned early in life who she was and what she wanted. She'd always been the type to kick butts and take names. He just hadn't realized until recently that she'd done it quite literally a few times. Where Harry fought back when attacked, Ginny ran into things with fists-blazing like some busty Superhero with childbearing hips.

She had always wanted someone to run along beside her and had lived in a fantasy where Harry was that someone. She'd convinced herself that he just needed a little time to catch up. Harry didn't even know who he was, yet. All he had was a slight idea but learned something new about himself each day. He was nowhere near as surefooted as Ginny. He wondered if he ever would be. What Harry wanted was what he'd never had. A guide. He needed someone to show him were to go. No puzzles and riddles. No patronizing. No hero-worship expectation that he secretly knew everything simply because he was powerful. He wanted someone that recognized his strengths but didn't ignore his faults. Though he was nicknamed the Savior of the Wizarding World, he needed a savior of his own.

Once Ginny was gone, Harry took to visiting the boutique more often. Claudia made at least one or two items everyday and received new stock on Tuesdays. The woman's fondness for him didn't wane as headlines boasted of his recent bachelor status. He knew the lady had put two and two together about why he was in her shop. Thankfully, she never asked him any questions.

She'd introduced padded bras into his life by offering him a gift, one day. She followed this up with g-strings the following week. He knew the gifts were half appreciation for him being a regular customer and half condolences for his lost relationship. Like any ex, he needed a good distraction and appreciated Claudia's silent contributions.

As his collection grew, he began using a spare bedroom as a boudoir. He and Ginny had never furnished the room and he found turning it into an oasis was a fulfilling hobby when he wasn't working. As a model, he seemed to work in isolated whirlwinds. Shoot after shoot. A mad, pre-dawn to post-midnight cramming of workdays in a single week. All of that followed by nothing. He supposed if he ever hired an agent he'd get more work, but he didn't necessarily need the work or want another person so intimately involved in his affairs.

The room was dark and masculine despite its pastel contents. He hung his garments on padded hangers and the hangers on wooden racks that he could roll around the room. They were mundane, muggle ones with wheels. Despite his power, Harry had never learned many household spells. He used his own hands and a plethora of instruction booklets to assemble padded trunks to line one of the walls. They were great for storing items he had trouble hanging and he could pass out on top of them when sleeping in his bedroom felt too lonely.

Finally, Harry admired the floor-to-ceiling, unblemished and seamless mirror in the middle of one wall. Bookended by ornate panels covered in engraved scenes of wizard history, the reflection of all the delicate garments across the room looked strange and foreign. Harry shrugged at the juxtaposition. He couldn't imagine himself in a room made for a woman. He enjoyed the feel and look of lace on his body, but he was still a man.

His final touch on the richly decadent mahogany and velvet room was something he realized should have been his first. He considered his appearance with near narcissistic reverence the first time he emerged from his racks of lace dressed in nothing but a single pair of dainty, pink knickers. They'd been the first girly thing he'd ever purchased. On a whim in some muggle department store, he'd snatched them from a display across from the cologne cabinets. He couldn't quite remember, but he might have gotten them for Ginny. The train of thought that led him into wearing them was a distant if not nonexistent memory. He just knew he'd never felt anything like it, before.

Harry squared his shoulders and pulled in his abdominal muscles, turning in front of the mirror in what he imagined was a dancer's way. Modeling had done wonders for his sense of balance and self-confidence. Yet, he still didn't think of himself as beautiful. He was shorter than all of his male friends, but didn't feel particularly petite. His arms and legs were long and reedy. His chest was full enough for him not to look emaciated but he was far from muscular. His belly was flat and undefined. His bottom, as Severus had so scathingly pointed out, was flat. He didn't even have the bubble bottom that he imagined most gay men cherished.

Thinking of Severus inspired a blush to spread down his body. Skin, evenly bronze due to the muggle tanning beds he sometimes used for clothing-catalog work, reddened in burgeoning arousal. He never tucked, so it didn't take long for his cock to grow over the waistband of his knickers, creating a moist-smear on his belly. He watched as it grew, clenching and unclenching the muscles that made him twitch. The light thump of the warm head against his stomach was erotic.

Harry tucked a thumb under his cock and pulled it completely out of his knickers. Unable to resist a few strong strokes as his fingers wrapped around his length, his hand was sticky with precome in moments. Pausing, he pulled the hard pole down as far as he could. Watching himself in the mirror, his face was pink and his bottom lip was bruised from biting. He'd taken a liking to the sensation after Severus' teeth had introduced themselves to his skin all those many weeks ago. Glasses fogging but not so much that he couldn't see himself, Harry let go of his cock and it swung back up and harshly slapped against his abdomen. His thighs quivered at the jolt of pleasure.

Knees bent slightly and back arched, he sucked his bottom lip back into mouth and gingerly pushed his cock to the side to slide it back underneath the waistband of his panties. Nestled between a hipbone and the unyielding, scratchy lace, his cock throbbed wonderfully. Harry dragged his fingernails lightly over the flowered designs, creating the rare sensations that had him so thoroughly addicted to his secret obsession.

In the mirror, he imagined Severus standing behind him, pressing a scalding erection against his lower-back. He imagined he could feel the man frotting against him, not caring if Harry liked it or not. He wondered if he could make the man desperate for contact and release. He wondered if Severus would ever fuck him senseless and leave him aching to cum as he left for work or whatever it was that Severus did to keep himself busy. He wondered when he'd started to get-off on the idea of begging Severus to fuck him. He'd never wanted to beg the arrogant fuck for anything.

He bent slightly forward, presenting himself for his imaginary Severus. In his head, Severus rubbed a hand up the back of his thigh and into the right leg-hole of his panties, pulling the lace aside, only ripping it a little to make room for him to enter Harry's ass. Harry only knew what sex was like between men in roundabout, theoretical ways. His fantasies were no place for the intricacies of preparation, his dream-Severus slid into him without resistance and held him by the waist and one leg.

As Harry bent and continued to touch himself through his knickers, the sturdier parts of the lace design began digging into the hard flesh of his cock. He gave himself a few painful squeezes and gasped with surprise as his building pleasure suddenly exploded into an orgasm. The first spurts came gushing through the lace and the rest oozed down his thigh. Shuddering, he continued to squeeze his trapped cock and looked in the mirror, again.

He was sweating and panting. He'd bitten his lip a bit too hard and there was a tiny split on the left side. He idly hoped it healed before his next photo shoot before his brain caught up with him and reminded him that he could do magic. Thinking of magic made him accio his wand for a round of cleaning spells. "Accio" was his only trick. He was no wandless-magic genius like his former Potions Master.

Before he righted himself, Harry took another look at his panties. They were a bit ruined by his rough treatment of himself. Any place the lacey patterns thinned out was either stretched or ripped. His cum made a mess of the right side and hadn't dried fast enough to keep it from dripping down the front of his leg to his knee. He'd never been the type to pay attention to the amount of cum that came out of him, but he was a bit in awe of himself. He wondered if it was more than normal, but had nothing to compare it to. Cock sufficiently softened, his panties went back to fitting like a light, second skin instead of a vice made of many pleasurably, prickly points.

A few flicks and swishes later, his body was clean and his knickers mended. Harry's glasses were defogged and his hair no longer clung to the sweat on his brow. He was free of the odor of sex and whatever stray droplets of semen had hit the floor were banished to wherever it was that banished messes went.

Though the man was a constant fixture in Harry's dreams, he hadn't seen Severus in well over two months. After being tossed onto Snape's floor, he'd dreaded running into the man at the boutique and had stopped buying new knickers for several weeks. The society events he'd been to after that day were related to Ginny's career in professional quidditch. He'd not expected Severus to be at any of those.

Then, there was his post-Ginny hope that he would run into Snape. A chance meeting at the boutique meant he didn't have to initiate anything. He didn't want it to seem like he broke up with Ginny simply to run to someone else. After all, despite the man being the star of all his sexual fantasies, Harry wasn't even sure he liked Snape.

Then, there was the fact that Ginny was right. Harry did need to grow up. Bouncing from The Dursleys to Hogwarts and then to Ginny had provided him with a ridiculously narrow world-view. Even with the goal of expanding his horizons, Harry usually sat around at home until time to work. His free time was spent taking Claudia lunch so he'd have an excuse to talk to her and standing around in ballrooms, talking to Ron and Hermione while looking for Snape.

Much to their credit, Hermione and Ron never asked why he and Ginny split. They were a bit upset that they only got to see him at parties, but also seemed to understand that Harry just needed some time away from everyone. Harry didn't necessarily want to be alone, but he definitely didn't want Ron and Hermione asking questions about the locked room on his second floor.

One particular evening, they were all at the launch party for Perry's Practical Potions Periodical, a new magazine that boasted of everyday solutions for the Potions inept. Harry worked himself into an internal frenzy, nearly jumping at every word directed his way. The gathering was a simple, cocktail party in Perry's cramped production offices. While each room was small and made maneuvering around chit-chatting guests a real challenge, the amount of rooms seemed endless.

The rooms, all separated by open archways instead of doors, didn't have hallways between them. They seemed to be set up in some kind of grid, but Harry speculated the grid shifted due to some arbitrary magical rule. Perhaps they were like the moving stairs at Hogwarts and inexplicably moved from one place to the next of their own volition.

Harry crossed threshold after threshold in search of Hermione and Ron after leaving the restroom. He was sure they'd only been three rooms away, but he'd walked through thirteen without running into either. Agitated, he vowed to just sit down in the next empty room he found. Sure, it might not have been very polite to sit at someone's desk, but it wasn't his fault their boss had decided to let a bunch of drunk people tramp through their labyrinthine workplace.

Though less-crowded rooms were abundant, Harry had trouble finding a place that wasn't at least partially occupied. Here and there, he stumbled across a snogging couple. Sometimes he found an office that was empty except for a single person asleep behind the desk, exactly where Harry wanted to be. He finally found a room that seemed to be what he was looking for, but once seated, noticed a younger wizard leaning in the corner, laughing into a muggle cellphone. Grumbling, he stomped past the wizard and over the next threshold.

"Oi! I think I just pissed off Harry Potter..." he heard the voice trailing after him as he left.

"I can't find my friends. I'm tired of this stupid party. I don't know how to get out of here. I wish I could find Snape." Harry's tirade went as he crossed the room.

Through the next threshold he found another crowded room. Perhaps he was back in the populated areas where he was most likely to find Ron and Hermione. Now that the two lived together, he expected they wouldn't be hiding behind a desk, snogging. Then again, what did Harry Virgin Potter know of passion?

Just before his self-hatred could take hold, he had all of the emotion knocked out of him by the sight of Severus Snape.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The man hadn't spotted him, yet. Or, he'd been spotted but ignored. Either way, He was seeing Snape in profile as the man talked with Perry-himself. Prior to that night Harry had only seen Severus in three modes: Teacher Snape, Wizarding-formal Snape, and muggle-casual Snape.  
  
At that moment, Harry was seeing what he would dub "Cocktail Snape." While the other Snapes leaned heavily toward black clothing or at the very least a collection of neutrals, Cocktail Snape was striking in blue. The overall outfit was made of a blue so dark it could have been mistaken for black, but intricate details on the sleeves were formed with both royal and ice blue thread and stones. The man's hair was even held back by a single, navy ribbon.  
  
Harry had never noticed another person's sideburns, before. Yet, Snape's hugged the line of his high cheekbones in a fetching way. They formed a long L-shape with a tapered end that pointed toward his mouth. Harry was more than willing to have his eye drawn to those delectable, although thin lips.  
  
He wasn't smiling, but something about the way Severus spoke with Perry showed that he was at ease and enjoying the conversation. Harry felt a pang of jealousy. Perry published a magazine about potions. What did Harry have in common with Snape? He supposed they both loved to shop in the same place. They were both friends with Claudia. There wasn't much a man could say about either.  
  
Part of Harry wanted to turn on his heel and search for an exit. Another part of Harry pressed eagerly against his knickers, urging him to at least talk to Snape so all parts of Harry could have more fuel for fantasies.  
  
He cleared his throat before crossing the room, knowing he'd squeak at the man if he didn't take a deep breath and prepare for his greeting. On the one hand, he felt like a little kid toddling up to his teacher and a famous publisher. On the other, he was Harry Potter. The world didn't know he was the most self-conscious thing to ever walk the planet. He took a deep breath. Harry Potter. Harry Not Going To Leave Like a Little Boy Potter. He set off.  
  
The closer he got to Snape, the more he felt like he had two very large hearts, one in each ear, both having attacks. He tried to will his face to stop reddening. He tried to will his cock to stop jumping for joy. Despite his hardened resolve, he still had to fight not to run away. He had to talk to Snape. He had to show Snape he was a man. Perhaps a man that needed someone that would let him be a little boy, but a man nonetheless.  
  
Distance crossed, Harry stood beside the two men and time seemed to slow down. In the instant the men noticed him, Harry knew they'd start turning toward him and he'd have to speak. He didn't know Perry's last name or have permission to use Snape's first. He didn't know what kind of person Perry was. Should he compliment the decor or admire Perry's turquoise and yellow robes? Did Snape want to hear about how delicious he looked in blue?  
  
"Hello, gentlemen! Lovely party, Perry. I haven't had this much fun in ages. A pleasure to see you again, Severus." Harry bit his tongue to keep from shouting a victorious "Yah!" for not stammering.  
  
"Glad to hear it, Mr. Potter." Perry responded with a lift of his glass. Harry was without a drink and gave a slight nod of his head in response. Then, Harry turned his attention to Severus. He wondered if the man would even acknowledge him. Though the entire situation had been Severus’s fault, he hadn't seemed too happy with Harry the last time they'd interacted. Not that he ever seemed happy with Harry.  
  
"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Potter." Severus was without a glass as well and simply pursed his lips in what Harry assumed was his own sneering sort of smile. Harry loved it and wanted to kiss it off of his face.  
  
Apparently, Harry's eyes betrayed his feelings because in the next instant Perry was thanking Severus for his contributions to the magazine and saying he'd leave the two of them to catch up. There had been much eyebrow-wagging involved.  
  
Gesturing for Harry to follow him, Severus whispered a reprimand.  
  
"Must your gaze hold such affection, Potter?" he started. Harry struggled to listen as he only wanted to drown in the sound of Snape talking. Thankfully they were crossing the room at a leisurely pace and Harry didn't have to try to concentrate on keeping up with Snape's long-legged stride. "I'd rather the tabloids stay out of this."  
  
"This? We have a this!?" Harry said in a voice far too giddy.  
  
"Do hush until we're out of here."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Don't "sir" me."  
  
"Yes... s.... Snape?"  
  
Severus sighed.  
  
"Once outside, we'll side-along apparate to my home." Severus explained as they stood near the threshold looking at the party-goers in the other room. Severus seemed to want to keep up the pretense that they weren't talking to each other. Harry gazed at the laughing, drinking people as he listened and replied.  
  
"We can't just apparate from right here?"  
  
Severus glanced down at him and rolled his eyes.  
  
"No, Mr. Potter. We cannot apparate into and out of private property. The anti-theft wards won't allow it. Also, apparating out of a crowded room has the same effect as running through one. People panic and follow suit."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"Did you drive or bring a broom that you need to pick up?"  
  
"I don't know how to drive and it's hard to fly in the..." Harry's voice trailed off when he realized he'd been about to speak about himself wearing panties. Severus seemed to pick up on the omission and chuckled.  
  
"I'm going to take that as a long-winded, "No." and call up the exit."  
  
"Call up the...?"  
  
"We would like to exit." Severus said to the archway.  
  
Without fanfare or delay, a plank of ornate wood appeared before the two men. Severus opened the door and held it open for Harry. Awed, the younger wizard walked out onto the sidewalk. A car passed by and Harry turned around to look up at the building. Partygoers were visible through the windows on the sixth floor. He didn't remember any windows being inside and was taken aback by the fact that they'd been so high up in the building but had walked out of the front door on the ground level.  
  
"One of the most powerful wizards of all time defeats another one of the most powerful wizards of all time and stands in astonishment when faced with a simple threshold charm." Snape murmured as he pressed a finger to Harry's palm. Before the younger man could be shocked by the gesture, they were standing in front of the building the squirrel had brought Harry to.  
  
Harry silently followed Severus inside and they passed the elevator door to silently tramp up the stairs. They arrived on the fourth floor in what Harry imagined should have been an awkward silence, but wasn't. Severus used muggle keys to open his door and held it open for Harry to enter.  
  
The hour was late, but not indecent. As much as Harry wanted Snape to sweep him into his apartment and throw him onto the bed, he wasn't surprised when Severus simply welcomed him like a proper gentleman to offer him a seat and a drink.  
  
"Yes, thank you. That would be nice." Harry said as he took a seat on Severus’s couch. He was disappointed when the man brought them both glasses of water and sat in a chair across from him instead of on the couch next to him.  
  
They drank in silence and Severus rested his heavy gaze on the other side of the room instead of on Harry. They sipped quietly until Harry couldn't take it, anymore. Though he yearned for conversation, he couldn't make himself cut right to the chase.  
  
"So, uh... did you use a threshold charm to call the door or is there a charm on the threshold?" he asked. Severus didn't seem to have heard him. Harry sat silently staring at his former teacher. He was about to repeat himself or change the subject. How inane did charms seem when they had... something between them?  
  
"That is actually one of the most intelligent questions you've ever asked me," Severus replied.  
  
"Ah... thank... you?" Harry wasn't sure whether or not he was being insulted. Severus shared a look with Harry that was different from most of the ones he'd seen that year. Severus was back in teacher mode.  
  
"The charm is set on the front door of the building and the back door of the entry hall. If you walk through the front door without stating a destination, you end up in the entry hall. If you walk out of the back door without stating a destination, you end up in whatever room the building thinks you might like. This continues until you name the room or inhabitant you're looking for. Being a building, however, it is about as good at thinking as you are."  
  
"Hey, why do you always have to insult me?" Harry asked, his tone more serious than he'd wanted it to be.  
  
Severus perked a brow at the younger man.  
  
"Would you be here if I didn't?" Severus asked.  
  
"Of course... I... would..." Harry thought about it. He didn't know. "I don't know."  
  
"Ronald and Hermione compliment your personality. I'm sure whatever relationship you have with Longbottom started with pity. Perhaps you saved him from his own shadow on the day you met." Severus held up a hand as Harry's brow furrowed. Harry clamped shut the mouth that had just opened to defend Neville. "Hagrid is so big you couldn't miss him. Many of your friends are your parents' friends. Would you even remember me if I hadn't made you feel angry each time we spoke?"  
  
"Of course I..." Harry thought about that as well. He often forgot Seamus had been one of his roommates and that had only been a couple of years ago. Living in the woods for a good bit of that time made him feel like he was years older and his life at Hogwarts had been eons ago. "You only insulted me so I'd remember you?"  
  
"Potter, I insult you because I am what they call an "Asshole." I enjoy insulting people and won't pretend otherwise."  
  
"Ass."  
  
"Do keep your mind on the topic at hand and your drool off the wood flooring."  
  
"No, I'm calling you an ass."  
  
"A tad redundant, don't you think?"  
  
"I've just... I've just always wanted to."  
  
"Does it feel good?"  
  
"Not really. Doesn't feel any different."  
  
"So, let me ask you again." Severus uncrossed his legs and stood, glaring down at Harry from the other side of his coffee table. "Would you be here if I didn't heighten your emotions?"  
  
"Uh... are we still talking about anger and insults and you being an asshole?"  
  
"Are we?" Severus asked, his arms folded and a brow perked. The ice-blue embroidery on his sleeves caught the light in a mesmerizing way. Harry stared and did not answer.  
  
"Hmph." Severus turned his back and crossed the room, "I asked you here to congratulate you, Potter."  
  
"For... what?"  
  
"I'm congratulating you for doing something for yourself."  
  
Tentatively, Harry rounded the low-sitting coffee table but still left a few feet between himself and Severus’s back. He wanted to reach out a hand and touch the man's shoulder. He yearned for contact. He wanted to be pushed around and bitten. He wanted hands digging into his lace camisole, bruising his ribs with passionate pressure. Yet, he didn't want to cross whatever line there was that would get him kicked out.  
  
"But... but you always call me..." Harry didn't really want to remind Severus.  
  
Harry saw more than heard Severus take a long sigh.  
  
"Potter, you were, always have been, and will possibly always be an incredibly self-centered person. You didn't grow up in a large family or with guardians that showed you unconditional love. Your attempts at altruism are admirable but misguided." Severus paused. "Alright, go ahead."  
  
"Go... what?"  
  
"Do whatever it is you climbed over my coffee table to do. I'm sure your plan wasn't to stare at my, admittedly impressive backside."  
  
Harry had managed not to look all evening, but now that Severus had mentioned it, Harry couldn't resist a glance at the way his rounded bottom pushed out his robes. Considering whether or not Severus would take kindly to him grabbing said bottom, Harry approached and pressed both hands against Snape's shoulders. Then, in a gesture that probably looked more awkward than it felt, he pressed his face into the middle of Snape's back. There was a supreme comfort in resting his cheek near Snape's spine. He could hear the older man's pulse thrumming erratically. He felt good knowing Snape, for all his icy exterior, was just as nervous as he was.  
  
"I want to teach you to take without guilt and give without obligation. It's perfectly fine to be whoever you are. Don't apologize for wanting what you want. Don't apologize for not pleasing everyone."  
  
"What's so wrong with wanting my friends to be happy?"  
  
"Potter, you want the whole world to appreciate you. You want them to like you." Severus said the word "like" the same way one would say "pond sludge."  
  
"That's a good thing. It's positive."  
  
"It's a good and positive intention. I'm sure you know what muggles say about good intentions." Severus began. He turned around and put a few inches of space between himself and Harry. After meeting the younger man's eyes, he looked down at his left forearm. Harry’s eyes followed.  
  
Sliding the pinky of his right hand up the sleeve from wrist to elbow, he magically sliced the fabric away as if using an invisible zipper. The Dark Mark glared up at the two wizards. Even as a mundane tattoo, it gave Harry goose bumps.  
  
"I was like you." Severus said softly, his eyes on his arm and not on Harry. "Perhaps a little more jaded as a child, but ever so eager to please."  
  
Harry wanted to argue. He wanted to say that he'd never do something so foolish. However, all he'd ever done in his life was follow and react. McGonagall wanted him to play Quidditch. He played. Voldemort attacked him. He defended. Hell, if Hermione had only demanded that all of her friends make top marks. He would have spent more time in the library trying to impress her. Even the break-up with Ginny, the thing he was sure Snape was congratulating him for, hadn't been his own idea.  
  
Harry's life hadn't led him down a dark path, but if it had he couldn't imagine himself putting up much of a fight.  
  
"I... I have done something for myself. Before now, I mean." Harry said, shyly. "The... the uh... At Claudia's."  
  
"That is what made me aware you were capable." Severus said in a hushed tone. He tilted forward just enough to graze his lips across Harry's scar. "Goodnight, Mr. Potter."  
  
The warmth that had settled into Harry with the kiss turned to stone at the whispered dismissal.  
  
"Goodnight!?" Harry's anger and confusion battled for dominance of his facial features. He yelled. "What'd I do? Why?"  
  
"Why not?" Severus spoke with a nonchalant expression and slight shrug. He seemed not at all phased by Harry's battling emotions and Harry felt like a child, again. Without Harry noticing, he'd closed his open sleeve and folded his arms. He was blocking Harry out, again. Harry wondered if that was what Ginny felt like every single day for almost a year.  
  
"I..." Harry deflated. He didn't want to seem like a horny teenager. Oh, but he was. Didn't Severus know that nothing could be neutral between them? Didn't he know that Harry was going to expect something more than a kiss on the forehead?  
  
"Lesson number one, Mr. Potter." Severus said, his voice slipping into something deeper. Sexier. "You only get what you ask for."  
  
"I..." Harry was still wary of Snape. The man had already said he took pleasure in being a jerk to people. Yet, he'd shown such a capacity for sweetness. "I want to not be alone, anymore."  
  
Severus took more than a moment to push the shock from his face. When he resumed his sardonic expression and tone, Harry didn't feel quite as offended as he imagined he should have.  
  
"I didn't expect your request to be so mature. Profound, even."  
  
"I didn't expect you to have Multiple Personality Disorder."  
  
A chuckle.  
  
"Touché, Potter."  
  
Harry gave the older man a lopsided grin. He was smiling at Snape. Snape had given him a compliment. Several. He was nervous. He fidgeted and dug his right toe into the ground like a schoolchild telling a lie. He managed to stop the right foot only to set the left foot tapping.  
  
"Calm down, Potter."  
  
"I can't calm down!" Harry admitted in an outburst. Taking a breath, he lowered his voice. "You're nervous, too! Don't argue with me. I heard your heartbeat."  
  
"Observant."  
  
"And my request. Are you even going to fill it?"  
  
Harry watched the man narrow his eyes. Bracing himself for the conspiracy-theorist paranoid he knew Snape to be, he was more than a little relieved at Severus’s response.  
  
"I'm rather known for being the absolute worst of company, but if you will endure my... idiosyncrasies, I'll admit to being more than a willing candidate."  
  
"So... I just asked you to be my boyfriend and you said "yes" right? That's what just happened?" Harry asked. He was in awe of himself for wanting it. He was in awe of Severus for agreeing to it. He was in awe of how excessively happy he felt.  
  
"I may not acknowledge it with such a puerile label, but yes. We've agreed to form some sort of... monogamous, sexual and emotional bond at your request."  
  
"Do you always talk like a textbook?"  
  
"Which one do I sound like?" Severus asked. Something about his expression told Harry the "Monster book of Monsters" was probably the first to come to mind.  
  
"Nevermind." Harry responded as he pulled Severus into a hug. He was so much shorter than Snape that even on his tiptoes he couldn't reach the man's lips. In everything they did, Snape would have to bend to his shortcomings.  
  
And bend, Severus did.  
  
When their lips met, Harry did feel self-conscious. Did boyfriends give desperate kisses? Did Severus expect him to be good at this? Was desperation a good thing, considering how long they'd been apart?  
  
Severus broke the kiss at Harry's obvious hesitation. Before he could even ask, Harry was speaking.  
  
"Is it bad that I'm here and I'm pressing a boner against your leg and I want you so bad but...? I just want to cuddle? Tonight, at least?"  
  
"Not at all. If I had scotch instead of water I might admit to finding it a bit endearing." Severus said, his arm sliding around Harry's waist as he turned them toward his bedroom.  
  
"Of course, only if you'd had scotch." Harry responded with a grin. Severus pressed another kiss to his scar and spelled his bedroom door open. Inside, the room looked like it could have been an extension of Harry's boudoir. It was sleek and modern, unlike Harry's ornate, old-world design. However, the palette was almost a copy. Polished mahogany furniture and dark fabrics.  
  
Severus’s bed was large, lush, and hunter green. It seemed to float off the floor because the coverlet hid the platform underneath that supported it. Or perhaps, Severus had a floating bed.  
  
The headboard was a flat, mahogany rectangle attached to the wall. Above that hung five photographs in thick, matching frames. They were all wide but short. The topmost was the shortest with the fifth one only slightly smaller than the headboard. They were the only color-photographs Harry had seen in the apartment. Five images cut from the same photo of hunter green silk. They gave the impression that Snape's bed had dripped down the wall and into existence.  
  
The bed was high off the ground. Perhaps Severus would have no problem getting in, but Harry imagined himself scrambling up the side like a cat trying to climb a glass door. The bedroom walls were white just like in the living room but the room looked warmer. Where the living room had furniture made of steel and glass, the bedroom had tall, mahogany side-tables with flat panels on the front. Harry knew these were doors because one was slightly open. Across from the bed was a wall made of similar mahogany panels of varying sizes. He wondered if those were doors, too.  
  
"In the interest of time, shall I cast a few cleaning and disrobing spells?"  
  
Harry snapped out of his trance. He imagined he could have been content to stare at the room for the rest of the night, taking in every last detail.  
  
At Harry's nod, the two of them suddenly smelled of soap and Severus’s arm was skin-to-skin with Harry's torso. His hand resting on Harry's hipbone was unbearably intimate. The shorter wizard turned and kissed the first thing his lips met. That happened to be Snape's armpit. He was glad of the cleaning spells and mortified that Severus might think he was crazy.  
  
"If the blush is due to our nudity, let me say that you're the most attractive man I've ever laid eyes on. If it's the..." Severus’s free hand gestured to his underarm. "Note that I will be kissing every inch of you at your earliest convenience."  
  
They crawled into the bed and fell into a companionable silence. Harry smiled at the fact that he hadn't looked awkward climbing onto the bed and Severus respected Harry's wish to postpone further intimacy. He only kissed the parts Harry tucked under his chin. Forehead. Cheek. Chin. Nose. He limited himself to only touching the parts Harry pulled his hand to. Stomach. Shoulder. Chest. Hair. He murmured a cleaning spell when Harry's frotting against his thigh left them both sticky.  
  
Hours later, neither had fallen asleep. Despite mutual insomnia, they were both quite comfortable in one another's arms.  
  
"I usually have a potion before bed." Harry admitted into the near darkness. He'd always told Ginny it was a nightcap. He hadn't wanted her to worry about his sanity.  
  
He didn't want Severus to think he was weak. However, he knew the man wouldn't try to keep him away from his remedy.  
  
"As do I." Severus confessed.  
  
"Do you happen to have any Dreamless Sleep?" Harry asked after a long pause.  
  
In the moonlight, Harry saw Snape pick up an ornate bottle from his nightstand. The color and arrangement had looked decorative, but Harry didn't imagine Snape to be the type to leave an empty bottle sitting around. They took a dose, embraced, and slept.  
  
The following morning, Harry woke with a start. The warm body that had remained wrapped around him all night was gone. As the realization tore him from sleep, his heart slammed in his chest until he remembered he was in Snape's apartment and the man couldn't abandon him in his own bed. He then felt guilty for imagining the man would. Severus was nothing if not loyal. A dedicated promise-keeper.  
  
Across from the bed, Harry saw their robes from the previous night were pressed and hanging on one of the mahogany planks. The upper panels were, indeed, doors and the lower ones were drawers. Several were open and Harry sat up to see if he could catch a peek from the bed. He couldn't see, but imagined there were shoes inside the drawers due to the shape and size.  
  
Attached to the front of their robes, either with magic or straight pins, hung their undergarments. Harry's mint-green, lace camisole and boy shorts looked like a layer of candy on top of his somber, grey dress-robes. Snape's ice-blue corset coordinated beautifully with the robes underneath. Harry's cock, which hadn't originally been keen on waking up, began to swell as he noticed the translucent fabric draped over the shoulder of Snape's dress robes. Stockings.  
  
"Glad you weren't planning on sleeping all day." Severus said as he walked back into the bedroom through a door to Harry's left. Judging by the steam leaving the door and the dew covering Snape's body, Harry knew that was his bathroom.  
  
Harry hadn't taken the time to look at him the previous night. The man's chest, arms, and legs were well-muscled but completely smooth. Harry suspected he groomed because his crotch, where Snape's heavy, flaccid cock nestled, was dark with hair. Said hair trailed up in a triangular shape to his navel, which Harry had an insatiable urge to tongue.  
  
He wondered if people tongued navels. His cock had not stopped growing and the thought of his tongue on Snape’s skin made him twitch. Severus's eye was immediately drawn to the movement under his sheets.  
  
"I'm flattered, but I must get to work. Perhaps we should procure a time-turner for mornings like these." Severus joked with a straight face. Harry knew time-turners weren’t the run of the mill sort of thing one picked up in Diagon Alley. He also knew Snape wouldn't abuse time travel laws for a quickie before work.  
  
"Good Morning to you, too." Harry said, blushing. He was quite shocked at how easily the two of them adjusted to the fact that Harry was there. He wondered if Snape had fantasized about him so much that it felt like another really good dream. Not that either of them had many of those.  
  
Severus approached the wardrobe and turned his back to Harry. Again, Harry was faced with his envy-provoking backside. The subtle jut of shoulder blades. The dip down the center of his back that outlined his spine. The slope of his rounded ass. Despite his slender form, nothing about his nude body seemed skinny. There was a physical power in Snape that Harry rarely saw in witches and wizards. Snape was a block of muscle.  
  
However, Snape's bottom was formed of two, perfect globules. A jiggling mass. Fat. Just the right amount for Harry to grab onto. Harry was glad he wasn't being watched. He didn't want Severus to see him wipe the saliva from the corner of his mouth.  
  
Harry pulled his knees up to his chin when Severus turned from the wardrobe-wall to spread out his daily wear. Black. Black. Black. Black and more Black. Harry frowned. After seeing Severus look dashing in blue, he wasn't keen on seeing the man climb back into his black cocoon. There seemed to be too many pieces. Harry recognized robes and, with another cock-twitch, black stockings. He didn't know about the stringy bits and something that looked like a flat, black plank with oddly curved ends. He watched with interest.  
  
Once the clothes were arranged on top of the green coverlet, Severus stood still with a look of concentration on his face. Suddenly, his hair and body were dry. Wandless magic always impressed Harry. Snape only perked a brow at his goofy grin.  
  
Severus started with the stockings. Harry imagined a person had to hop on one foot to get them on and there would be lots of cursing and crashing involved. Severus leaned his back on the wardrobe and bent forward. With his face obscured by the angle and his hair, he looked like a woman posing in one of Harry's lingerie catalogues. He picked up his foot; the toe pointed, and rolled one leg of the stocking between his thumbs and fingers until it was a tight bundle. Sticking his toe into the bundle, Severus stretched the sheer, black fabric to his calf and then worked on the other toe.  
  
Harry watched, enthralled, as Severus smoothed the stockings over bony knees then past his hips. The band at the top cut clearly across his waist. Snape's cock looked larger under the fabric. Or perhaps, he enjoyed being watched.  
  
Then, Severus reached for the plank. Apparently, the stringy bits were attached to it. They were organized, neatly wrapped around themselves, and tied in a loose knot. Severus unfolded the plank on the foot of the bed and began untying and separating the strings. Laces. A Corset! Harry hummed in approval. Snape glanced up at him, his expression soft and amused.  
  
Turning his attention back to his routine, Severus quickly laced the corset. Deft fingers slid the thick laces through reinforced holes. The holes looked glossy as if covered in nail-varnish, especially next to the matte-black of the corset's fabric. It wasn't long before Severus was sliding the loosely laced corset over his head.  
  
Adjusting its position, he made sure the subtle curve at the top was placed perfectly underneath his pectorals and the curve at the bottom perched perfectly on top of his hipbones. Harry realized the shape was very different from the ones he saw in magazines. The curves were subtle and once on Snape's body the lines at the top and bottom of the corset looked almost straight. Perhaps Claudia had tailored Snape's corsets to enhance the male form instead of to create a female one.  
  
Seeming preoccupied, Severus began the arduous task of reaching behind himself to tighten the laces. A few adjustments later, the corset seemed melded to his original form and he lifted his concentrating gaze from the floor to Harry's eyes. Feeling that there was something in particular Snape wanted Harry to see, the younger man leaned forward.  
  
Severus’s hands appeared from behind himself at his sides, both wrapped tightly in black cord. Snape exhaled. Then, knuckles going momentarily white, he tugged both hands forward, biceps bulging for a split second. The corset bit into his flesh. Another breath out. He grunted slightly as he pulled again. As if in pain. As if in rapture.  
  
Harry made no attempt to hide his awe. Severus paused to reach behind himself, checking something on the corset, again. His gaze fell away. Harry's cock ached and burned for contact. He was too turned on by Snape's display of anguished joy. He hoped that his hand disappearing beneath the sheets wasn't obvious.  
  
Three pulls later, Severus was satisfied with his reduction and began wrapping the cords around his waist. He brought the two ends, significantly shorter after multiple orbits, to his front and tied them neatly. The band around his waist and the resulting knot were elegantly arranged. They reminded Harry of decorations on Chinese clothing.  
  
Snape's routine quickened from there. There was a shirt with sleeves that seemed too long, but with the application of cuff-links and tiny, elastic bands that he'd introduced to Harry as "sleeve-garters" the extra fabric was tamed. There were slacks the shirt tucked into and a thin, patent-leather belt with a silver clasp. There were pointy-toed boots with tiny heels that clacked on Snape's wood floors.  
  
Then, there were robes. Harry knew those robes and almost wondered if he could find Snape attractive in them. As he watched his former teacher slide an arm into the unbuttoned sleeve, he tensed. He hadn't seen this Snape, teacher-Snape, in such a long time. Teacher Snape was the part of Harry's past he couldn't reconcile with his present. Moments ago, he had been a naked man in a new lover's bed, watching him put on the erotic opposite of a striptease. In just a few moments, he would be a naked boy in his teacher's bed.  
  
"What do you do, exactly?" Harry asked. Severus finally had both arms in his robes and had been reaching toward his collar for the first of the million buttons.  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Your... you... you're going to work. What is your job?"  
  
Severus’s brow furrowed. His eyes narrowed in their searching way and he frowned at Harry. Harry realized Snape hadn't frowned all morning.  
  
"I'm, as you well know, at professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Are you feeling well?"  
  
Harry gaped.  
  
"You're still a bloody teacher!?"  
  
Severus glared.  
  
"What, you think I do an inadequate job? Because I don't coax cooperation with sweets and coddle first years, you think my methods are ineffective?"  
  
"No, I..."  
  
"You think one of the most revered men in Potions is unfit to teach the subject!?"  
  
"No!" Harry was wilting dreadfully fast. He hated arguing. "I just thought you hated it!"  
  
Severus paused. Then, his left brow climbed significantly higher on his forehead.  
  
"Here I am, hoping you'll learn to indulge yourself, and you think I did something for almost two decades that I hated?"  
  
"Well, maybe "hate" is a bit of a strong word, but... you know. I thought you had to. For um... fear of... you know... for protection... purposes."  
  
Snape scoffed.  
  
"What do you think I did before The Dark Lord's first fall? How do you think I knew Albus Dumbledore? He's wasn't really the type to pal around at the local pub."  
  
"You were a student... and he's the headmas..."  
  
"Potter, there are thousands of students at Hogwarts. Why do you think I always ranted about you receiving special treatment?"  
  
"Because you're an asshole! An asshole that refuses to call me "Harry" even when I'm naked in your bed!"  
  
Severus rolled his eyes.  
  
"Why do you believe I was ranting about you, Harry," another word uttered in the same tone as "pond sludge."  
  
"Because... you're... an..."  
  
"Harry, Albus was a very busy man. He was a very powerful man. Most children never see him outside of the great hall. You were blessed beyond your wildest dreams to have had such a man even notice you. You and I both."  
  
Despite it being a very touching moment, Harry was disappointed that between being yelled at and talking about one of the friends he missed most after the war, he was not at all aching for contact.  
  
"But to answer your... assumption, Harry." Pond sludge. "I wanted to be a teacher at Hogwarts from the first moment I set foot in the school. I began teaching the year I graduated. I will continue teaching until the day I die... unless, of course, I become a ghost."  
  
"But you don't even like children!"  
  
"Correction, Potter..."  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
"POTTER, I don't like Gryffindors. Except for you, apparently. ...and Granger."  
  
"Hermione?"  
  
"No, the other bloody Granger we know." Severus was so disgruntled he pouted. Harry found he couldn't resist thinking of the expression as adorable.  
  
Harry laughed and apologized. He then climbed out of Snape's bed in a tangle of limbs and landed on the floor in the most unattractive sprawl. Clearly fighting not to laugh, Severus helped him up and into a hug. Harry mumbled something about wishing Snape had a rug or something. The kiss that followed felt natural and unbearably chaste after the first one they'd shared all those months ago. As Harry tried to deepen the kiss, his cock gave an interested twitch and Severus pulled away.  
  
"Potter, I didn't do all this work just to sully my robes."  
  
"I wasn't going to..."  
  
"Perhaps, I'm referring to myself."  
  
Harry had never felt sexier.  
  
He watched as Severus used his wand to button his robes and summon his cloak. He moved about the room, closing the doors on his wardrobe and checking the level on his bottle of Dreamless Sleep. Harry decided it was probably a good time to get dressed. The two of them spelled the bed clean and organized, together. Their first spell, together! Snape rolled his eyes at Harry's grin.  
  
Snape pointed his wand at himself and cast a spell Harry didn't recognize. Slowly, his robes seemed to fill up with air, standing just far enough away from his body for the change to be subtle. He moved across the room and they billowed in a ridiculous flare for such a tiny movement.  
  
"IT'S A SPELL!" Harry shouted with glee.  
  
"Tell anyone and you. Will. Die." Severus glared daggers at Harry.  
  
"Your secret's safe with me. Kind of weird that you're scaring kids on purpose."  
  
"Asshole." Severus said with a finger indicating his own head. Harry loved his sense of humor.  
  
"I know. I love it."  
  
"Of course you do." Severus responded before Harry pulled him down for another kiss.  
  
They left Severus’s flat with plans for dinner the following night.  
  
Their first date was the most romantic thing Harry had ever done in his life. He couldn't tell if it was just Severus’s love of privacy that brought them to the little-known, small and dimly-lit cafe in muggle London. He liked to imagine that his new boyfriend wanted to seduce him with candlelight and the mellow, jazz soundtrack. Either way, the place definitely served both purposes.  
  
"Teachers don't have to live at school?" Harry asked as he reached into their bread basket for the millionth time that night. They'd arrived less than a half-hour prior and Harry had already eaten enough rolls to feed a Weasley family reunion.  
  
"Of course not. In fact, most don't. muggle teachers live at boarding schools for convenience. Wizards can floo or apparate to Hogsmeade. You attended Hogwarts during a dangerous time where traffic to and from would have opened us to attack." Severus said, subtly charming the basket to evade Harry's hand.  
  
"Stop it!" Harry whispered over the table. "People are starting to look at it."  
  
"At what?" Severus took an innocent sip of his water.  
  
"At the basket jump around the table every time I make a grab for it!"  
  
"Oh, the basket is invisible to muggles." Severus glanced around the room, "I suppose the waiter is coming to ask if anything is wrong."  
  
"The waiter is what?"  
  
"Excuse me sirs, is everything alright?" the waiter ask, looking at Harry's hand hovering in the middle of the table. Hovering over nothing.  
  
"Oh... I... um..." Harry stumbled over words as he pulled his hand back to his own lap.  
  
"He was admiring the music, I suppose. Imagines himself to be a future conductor or something of the sort."  
  
Harry's eyes flickered with rage. He wanted romance and privacy, not public embarrassment! Even if it was just one waiter that assumed he was a loony.  
  
"I always admire a father that supports his son's aspirations." The waiter responded with a soft smile at Severus, having missed Harry's murderous glare.  
  
Snape paled. Harry snorted. The waiter, puzzled, left the table.  
  
"So, daddy, can I sit on your lap when we get home?" Harry cooed in a teasing voice.  
  
The smoldering look on Snape's face told him that the answer was "Yes, please." and they could skip dinner if Harry liked. Harry was shocked and elated by the idea that Snape wanted him so fiercely. However, he'd been so mortified by Snape's "dancing basket" prank that he wouldn't give in so easily.  
  
"You're a sick man, Professor!" Harry whispered over the apparently invisible basket of bread. "Should I bring a giant lolli and wear a Japanese schoolboy uniform?"  
  
"The female ensembles are much more attractive." Severus responded, his face schooled back into his usual look of cool indifference.  
  
Harry let the idea of wearing a skirt and bowtie simmer on his mind. He'd only worn women's underwear. Those, he could hide underneath his clothes. It had never occurred to him that he could even try women's dresses and skirts. His underwear addiction was something he imagined he would eventually grow out of. Not that he hated it, but he knew that he couldn't keep such a large secret forever. He loved that this was something he could share with Severus. He hated that Severus seemed so comfortable and adventurous. Didn't he realize they were both nuts?  
  
"I... wouldn't wear something like that. Ever." Harry responded with obvious discomfort.  
  
Perking a curious brow, Severus didn't respond. He studied Harry's face with thin lips and narrowed eyes before simply taking another sip of his water. Harry felt like a heel. He wondered how many months he'd survive a relationship with Severus. He wondered when he'd make a serious misstep and be dumped, again. Perhaps Harry was destined to be alone. He couldn't seem to stop losing loved ones to death and his own stupidity.  
  
"You are quite bewitching with brooding eyes and pouty lips, Mr. Potter; However, I refuse to allow you to waste an evening internally abusing yourself. If it is abuse you seek, I can arrange something much more suited to both our tastes."  
  
"Harry..." he whispered.  
  
"I would truly love to oblige you. However, you must understand that you're attempting to debunk years of habit. It will take time." Severus said. His voice still lacked feeling, but Harry knew he wouldn't lie just to avoid an argument. In fact, he suspected Severus loved to argue.  
  
Harry nodded. Just as he was trying to force himself to smile, a server arrived and arranged their meal on the table. Harry watched with astonishment. He'd never been to a table service restaurant in the muggle world. How they managed to carry so much food on one tray and do so many things with only one hand and without magic, amazed him.  
  
Severus, ever the voyeur, watched Harry watch the server. He always enjoyed seeing Harry awestruck. It never ceased to please him when he was the reason Harry was in a position to be awed.


	3. Chapter 3

When their meal was over, there was no question about where they would go. The two men hailed a taxi outside of the restaurant and enjoyed the ride back to Snape's building. As Severus suspected, Harry spent the entire trip staring out the window at passing cars, buildings, and people.

Upon arrival, Severus paid with a credit card, using the machine on the back of the driver's seat. Harry watched with interest. He usually paid for everything with cash. He'd never acquired any muggle credit or debit cards and at Gringotts he usually asked for muggle money, anyway. After the war, though still impossible to use wizard money at muggle establishments, most wizard businesses took all kinds of currency.

"Why don't we ever take the elevator?" Harry asked after he and Severus entered the building and started up three flights of stairs.

"Do you want to take the elevator?" Severus asked, pausing on a stair.

"Um... not particularly. I just want to know why you chose the stairs. Is it broken?"

"Hmmmm..." Severus looked thoughtful for a moment and began climbing, again.

"Are you not going to answer me?" Harry asked, baffled as he followed.

"It's not an easy answer and may not make a lot of sense." Severus admitted. They were on the second floor and turning to climb to the third.

"Fear of heights? Fear of enclosed spaces? Fear of muggle technology?"

"Why do you imagine I make so many of my decisions based on fear?" Severus asked. He'd paused again and was looking at Harry with a speculative eye.

"I... uh... I don't... I didn't think... I don't. I mean, it's not just you. Most people do, I think."

"That can be argued." Severus responded. He resumed his stride before continuing, "Perhaps, I choose the stairs out of love."

Harry made a face behind Snape's back that said he did think the man was bonkers.

"Someone designed this stairwell." Severus explained. "Someone decided to leave the concrete beneath our feet bare. Someone decided to cover the bricks in the wall with that slate-blue paint. Someone decided on fluorescent over incandescent lighting. Someone decided that the rails would be held up by a metal pole in every fourth stair. Someone decided where the doors would go and that they would be brown. Someone decided to leave them propped open at all times. Though most decisions were more for function than appearance and many of these are common solutions: someone designed this stairwell. In that sense, I can appreciate it. Perhaps even love it. This. The work of a fellow artist."

"Fellow!?" Harry squeaked. By the time Severus finished his lecture they were standing at his apartment door. Harry watched the man use his keys and followed him inside.

"Those." Severus said casually as he gestured toward the photographs on the wall opposite the door. The same, three images that had entranced Harry on his first visit. Severus hung their coats and checked the locks on the door. After murmuring what Harry realized were a few security charms, Severus wrapped his arms around Harry's body. Pressed firmly against Harry's backside, the younger man could feel the rigid corset and hardened cock, reminding him why he was in Severus’s home. The idea thrilled and terrified him.

Severus sensed the terror over the thrill.

"What's wrong, Harry?" he asked, his breath on Harry's scalp as he nosed through Harry's hair. It felt as great as Harry had imagined. "I don't have hidden cameras anywhere and would only capture you with your prior consent."

"No, it's not that. I actually..." even with Severus at his back, Harry was mesmerized by the moving photos. "I actually think they're amazing. I really like them."

"So, the sudden intake of breath? The tensing of the shoulders? The straightening of the spine?" Severus inquired. Harry could hear in his tone that his left eyebrow was perked. "We can spend the night in another chaste embrace if that is more to your liking."

Though Severus could have made an insult of it, Harry realized he was being sincere.

"No! I want this. I want it very much." Harry responded, he'd peeled one of Snape's arms off of him to pull the man's hand down to his crotch. "Fe...feel... that?"

"Oh, do I ever." Severus growled in his ear. The warmth and wetness of Snape's breath made Harry twitch and Snape gave the pulsing organ a strong squeeze. Harry's knees threatened to buckle but Severus held on with the arm that was still around him. "However, I can't ignore your obvious apprehension. Just dawned on you that I'm a former teacher that's over twice your age?"

"Uh..." Somehow, that thought only turned Harry on, more. As did Severus’s groping hand.

"Suddenly kicked in that I'm a sadistic bastard and I could do absolutely anything to you at this point?"

"Oh..." Harry really did want Severus to do absolutely anything to him. The hard cock pressed against his backside told him that Severus agreed.

"Or maybe..."

"I've never done this before!" Harry responded. His hips were pressing him rhythmically against Snape's hand and cock. The hand stilled at his confession.

"You mean with a man?"

"I mean... at all. Ever."

"A... virgin...." Severus chewed the word slowly as if it were the best thing to ever pass his lips. Much slower and less roughly, Severus’s hand resumed its fondling of Harry's erection.

"Oh god, Snape... Snape... I'm gonna come if you don't stop."

"That is my intention."

"But... ah... Please... oh...” Harry squirmed and gasped as the low burn of pleasure in his belly turned into uncontrollable waves throughout his entire body.

Severus laughed in his ear. The tone was slightly cruel and though Harry recognized he should have been offended by this, it only served to turn him on more. He felt like a helpless plaything. As Snape’s large palm stroked him swiftly through his trousers. He’d already leaked enough precum to soak through panties and pants. The sloshing noise of Snape’s jerking fingers was music to his ears.

“Gods and MERLIN! I still have my... ah... I .... oh.... my pants...." Harry never quite finished his protests before his knickers were soiled. Severus didn't immediately remove his hand and Harry shuddered against his body as he continued to grip and massage him, lightly this time, through wet trousers.

Severus was kind enough to cast a cleaning spell before he and Harry crossed the living room. His steps were wobbly and unsure, but Severus held him up, supporting his pleasure-shaken limbs. In the bedroom, they were suddenly nude and Harry felt, for the first time, a naked cock against the small of his back. He pushed against the throbbing organ and smiled as Severus groaned behind him.

"I will be gentle with you, but you must..."

"I don't want you to be gentle."

Severus paused. Harry imagined both of his brows were perked in shock. He grinned to himself.  
Despite his expectation that Severus would concede by throwing him on the bed, biting his skin into a tapestry of marks, and fucking him senseless, the man simply kissed his right shoulder with closed lips.

"Did you hear me?" Harry whined, trying to pull himself out of Snape's arms. The older man's muscles flexed as he held Harry tighter.

"I heard you, but when have you ever known me to go along with your foolhardy whims?" Severus asked in a groan as he led Harry to his bedroom.

As they entered the room, the window's sheer drapes turned opaque and the electric lighting mellowed to something akin to flickering candlelight. Severus’s bed ghosted closer to the floor and the headboard sprouted a padded, green surface. The bottle of Dreamless Sleep blipped out of existence to be replaced by a vivid arrangement of flasks and vials that floated in from the bathroom door on their right.

Severus held Harry at the threshold, waiting for the enormity of what they were about to do to sink in. Or at least that's what Harry assumed he was doing. Severus, even naked and opening his home to Harry, was a complete mystery. Harry itched for a snide remark or annoyed sigh just to remind him whose arms were wrapped around him.

"Walk to the bed. Let me see you."

Harry felt the pressure around his body lessen as Snape slowly allowed him to slide out of his grip. After another soft kiss on his shoulder that should have been mood boosting, Harry self-consciously approached the covered windows. There was more space on that side of the bed and Harry took a slow turn like he'd done in his boudoir. His cock, hard and darkening, twitched as he imagined Snape fucking him the way he did in his dreams.

Severus groaned appreciatively. The sound was a purr and Harry found he couldn't lift his eyes from the floor. He knew he wouldn't see rejection in Snape's eyes. He had no idea what he was afraid of.

"Though your posture leaves much to be desired, I agree that your skin and svelte figure are incomparable." Severus made his assessment as he approached the side table that was laden with bottles. "To the bed, Potter."

Harry sighed with relief. Despite his frequent requests that Snape call him Harry and his giddiness at the romantic dinner, he wanted some of the old boundaries reestablished before they crossed more lines in the proverbial sand. He could be "Potter" in bed and wondered what kind of man that made him. He wondered what that said about their relationship.

"Drink this." Severus instructed as he passed Harry a potion he'd quickly mixed from his collection of tinctures.

He watched as Harry sat on the edge of the bed and swallowed it down. Subtly, Severus splayed a hand on his own thigh and withdrew a single digit at every passing second. When he was down to two fingers Harry finally got a bit curious.

"Hey, what does that potion d..." Harry's stomach growled at him.

"I'll make drinks while you make use of the lavatory." Severus said with a wicked grin. The man left the bedroom and Harry dashed into his bathroom, grumbling about how much he hated him.

When Harry emerged from the restroom, Severus was sitting on the bed with his long legs stretched out and his back against the headboard. His level of comfort while nude and erect was baffling. Harry wondered if he’d ever know what confidence felt like.

Snape was holding a short glass in his hand and his face seemed to be fixed in the perked-brow smirk Harry hadn't seen in hours and had dearly missed.

"How do you feel?" Snape asked as Harry walked around the bed and sat down.

"Violated."

Severus chuckled and took another sip of his drink.

"The boy that wanted to be ravished at the front door suddenly shows some modesty. Trust me; the magical route is much prettier and more convenient than any alternatives."

Harry still took greedy gulps of the amber liquid Snape passed him and was pleased at the low burn that started in his belly. Even if what turned out to be scotch had been another nasty potion, Harry would have endured. He knew everything Snape did was for his own good and enjoyed being able to trust someone that much.

"So... what do we do?" Harry asked, feeling awkward after they'd both put their glasses down. He wasn't entirely hard anymore and was glad Snape had given him some time to relax.

"That is completely up to you." Severus responded. His arm slid around Harry's shoulders and he pulled the younger man closer. Giddy at being touched, Harry slid up against his former teacher and laid his head on the man's chest. Playfully, he tangled his fingers through the hair on Snape's belly and giggled as the muscles beneath twitched.

"You're ticklish?"

"Sometimes."

"You know, that's more surprising than you wearing corsets."

"I'm full of surprises."

"Yeah, you're full of a lot of things."

"Impertinent."

"You love it."

"Perhaps."

Something in their banter emboldened Snape to action and he was suddenly on top of Harry, pressing him into the mattress with strong arms and an array of kisses and bites. As his mouth made its first trip down the length of Harry's body, the younger man found out that people actually did tongue navels. They also nibbled inner-thighs and laved knees as if starving.

More than the deliberate touches, Harry loved the way Snape's nose pressed against him when he was kissed and dragged along his skin when he was licked. He loved the hungry slurps of Snape's mouth as he devoured his flesh. He loved the involuntary grunts and groans that slipped out of Snape like monosyllabic confessions with a longer meaning. I want you. I need you. I'll have you.

When Severus finally turned his attention to Harry's cock, it was purple and aching. Harry felt so wound up, so sensitive, that he had to bite his bottom lip to keep from begging Snape to leave it alone and let him die from the pleasure. Ever the tease, Severus didn't immediately make contact with the throbbing organ. He held his mouth just an inch or two above it, his warm, wet breath making Harry twitch and leak. He chuckled sadistically when Harry cried out with want. He was pinning the younger man's hips hard enough to bruise and his arms were tensing with the effort of fighting Harry's thrusts.

"Will I be the first to tongue that tantalizing pearl of moisture from your slit? The first to lap up the glistening trail sliding down the length of you?" Severus asked; his breath still so close. A sweet and agonizing cloud of humidity.

"You're the first to touch me at all. The first to see me like this." Harry breathed out, his voice surprisingly steady considering he could barely stop himself from moaning and whining.

"I'm glad." Severus admitted. He was not romantic enough or religious enough to believe that virginity was some precious gift to be given only to one's true love. However, he liked the idea that he had another opportunity to teach Harry. He wanted to show the boy everything he knew and gaze into those awestruck eyes again and again.

Deft and strong, Snape's tongue did exactly as he'd promised and Harry felt tears leak from the corners of his eyes. He'd never been so aroused. He'd never felt anything so good. So simple, yet so good.

"I don't want to tie your hands, tonight." Severus said as he let go of Harry's hips and sat up. A bottle leapt from his the bedside table into his hand and he continued speaking.

"I want your first time to be without toys and accessories. However, if I see that you can't keep your hands away from that gorgeous cock, I'll be forced to restrain you."

He'd been dousing his fingers with shimmering oil while speaking. Harry gripped the sheets to keep from touching himself.

His knuckles ached from the strain. Just as he was starting to get annoyed with the discomfort, Severus kneeled between his legs and pressed a kiss just underneath his bollocks. Then he tongued that shockingly sensitive spot and licked down until he was wetting Harry's entrance with an eager mouth.

Harry squirmed and knew his lip-biting had drawn blood. It was so hard to keep his hands at his sides, but he refused to make the night anything less than perfect for Severus. He thought no greater pleasure could ever reach him until Snape pushed his tongue inside and fucked it slowly in and out. Harry screamed out in anguished joy. He was vibrating with need and the moist, undulating sensation in his ass gave him a strong sense of "so close, yet so far." It was enough to make him dizzy with lust, but not quite enough to bring him off.

Severus finally withdrew and Harry thought he'd have a chance to calm down, even just a bit. However, the man immediately breached him with a well-lubed finger. He didn't push in very far, allowing Harry a moment to adjust to the shallow squirm of his right index finger, only up to the first knuckle. To Harry, it felt like a huge rod. He wondered how he would ever accommodate Snape's cock if one finger made him feel so full.

Severus murmured praises to him and kissed his leg as he pushed the finger completely in. He stilled and whispered for Harry to relax. He told him not to squeeze. Three, light touches on his inner thigh. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. Relax.

Minutes passed and Harry found that he could adjust to the slow in and out of one finger. He still randomly tensed at the thought of taking in Snape's cock, but the whispers and kisses always calmed him down.

"Ah that's cold!" Harry squeaked and jumped, banging his head on the padded headboard when Snape removed his finger and squirted something wet into his ass.

"It is not cold. It is room temperature which, of course, is far cooler than your internal body temperature." Snape explained has he grabbed Harry’s hips and yanked him roughly down the bed. He set about the task of rearranging the boy in the same position. Satisfied with the angle of Harry’s legs he grumbled that he hoped his head was okay.

The liquid squelched around Snape's hand as he inserted two fingers. He pushed them completely in and pulled them completely out, several times. Harry was surprised that two didn't hurt nearly as much as one, but realized the liquid must have been something used for numbing pain. He still felt the incredible sensation of being filled, but without the sharp sting of untouched flesh suddenly being rubbed and prodded.

"This is why I didn't want you to touch yourself." Severus said after Harry started moaning. Harry didn't understand at first, but then Snape turned his hand and curled his fingers. He pressed against something inside Harry that made his cock twitch and gush strongly. Still not an orgasm, just an unending flow of lubrication. Severus’s pace increased and he was relentless. Even when Harry begged him to go slower, he continued to milk steady pulses by pressing that glorious spot inside.

Harry knew that the eternity he'd just experienced had been only a minute and he knew not to be glad when Snape withdrew his fingers. Just as he'd suspected, Severus pushed more liquid into him with some unseen apparatus and grabbed his hips. The hand that had teased him so thoroughly was clean and dry. Harry wondered how awkward sex was without magic.

"Are you sure?"

Harry looked up at the man hovering over him, feeling the head of Snape's cock bump against his hole.

"Oh, yes." he responded, touched that the man had done all that and still asked permission to proceed.

One hand left Harry's hip long enough to guide the head of Snape's cock into him. Though there was no sting, the feeling of being stretched and filled was unbearable. If not for the shuddering cry and the look of ecstasy on Snape's face as he slowly slid forward, Harry might have asked him to wait until later. He wanted this. He wanted to drive someone mad with pleasure.

Experimentally, he clenched the tight ring Severus had pushed past and the man slammed forward as if he had no control over his own hips. Harry grunted from the sudden intrusion but held his ground. Severus waited before moving, again. Much to Harry's relief, he didn't apologize, though he did stare at Harry's face in a searching way. Always the protector.

Slowly and with a vein throbbing on his temple from the strain of holding back, Severus eased out of and back into Harry. He took shallow strokes and tried to concentrate on Harry's face instead of his own pleasure.

Harry Potter was as readable as an open book in one's native tongue. Snape knew he wasn't enjoying it, anymore. Not yet.

"Don't bear down on your arms so hard. Put your calves on my shoulders. I've got you." Severus instructed, his biceps tightening as Harry followed his instructions.

There. That was the right angle for both of them. Harry wailed as Snape pushed forward. It was completely in, again, but this time it rubbed against his prostate. He knew what it was. He'd heard of it. He'd looked forward to someday knowing what it felt like. He'd not imagined it would be so wonderful.

"Ah... Snape, Snape." Harry cringed, his body tensing.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, it's just... it's too much. I can't..."

And with that, Harry was spilling himself. As if granted some silent permission, Severus’s release wasn't far behind. Though his body went limp, he caught himself to keep from toppling on top of Harry. He pulled out and immediately waved a cleaning spell over the two of them and the bed. By the time his head touched his pillow, they were spotless.

Silence stretched out between them, but even in the midst of such calming exhaustion, they couldn't just fall asleep. Of course, Harry decided to mar Snape's good mood with talking.

"That wasn't as long as I thought it would be."

Snape opened his eyes and turned to glare.

"I meant time wise! You're plenty long!"

The glare narrowed into a dagger.

"I mean... I didn't last as long as I thought I would. Well... you didn't either, I guess."

The glare stabbed him.

"Ack! I'm sorry! What I mean is I just... this was like... I don't know... was it even a half hour?" Harry was sitting up and gesturing enthusiastically. If either of them had entertained the idea of falling into a natural sleep, they weren't anymore.

"Potter, stamina and endurance are learned attributes. This was your first time and I teased you to the point of breaking. Most other lovers would have kicked my face in at some point. I, on the other hand, am not new to this, but I've not had a lover in many years. We'll eventually learn when to pause and how to be less greedy."

"I thought about kicking your face in, you know."

Severus rolled his eyes and poured their doses of Dreamless Sleep.

"Do learn to shut-up after coitus."

"Ewwww, what's coitus?"

The dagger-sharp glare focused itself on the ceiling as the teacher ignored his student.

The following morning, Harry felt that all of the previous night's passionate touches had turned to bruises. His hipbones ached from the pressure of Snape's hands and his legs hurt from being bent in ways he'd never previously imagined. Most of all, he was quite sure he wouldn't be able to sit for most of the day. Each muscle in his body gave a sharp reminder as he stretched and groaned. As one arm shot out across Severus’s side of the bed, Harry felt that tiny tremor of fear stab him in the gut. Again, he had to tamp it down by reminding himself that a man couldn't abandon someone in their own apartment.

He slowly turned himself onto his back, almost instantly regretting it when his ass reminded him that he was no longer Harry Virgin Potter.

"Pain potion on the side table." came Severus’s voice from the foot of the bed.

Harry blinked at him, realizing he hadn't yet opened his eyes, so engulfed in his own discomfort. As he opened his mouth to complain that Severus hadn't warned him about spraining every muscle in his body for a few minutes of pleasure, he realized he had something else entirely to feel upset about.

"You're already in your corset!" Harry whined.

Severus rolled his eyes. Pulling his wand out of the robes that were still hanging on one of the wardrobe doors, he levitated the aforementioned potion toward Harry's mouth.

"Drink."

Harry did as instructed and had the uncomfortable yet relieving sensation of his muscles turning to icy mush before slowly starting to warm and reconfigure.

"Sweet Merlin!" he yelped, "Did that look as bad as it felt?!"

"Thankfully, no." Severus replied as he turned his back on Harry to replace his wand and pull his teacher robes from their hanger.

Harry still pouted because he'd missed his chance to watch Severus get dressed. He wanted to watch the older man's legs flex as he rolled up his stockings and his muscles strain as he tightened his corset. He wanted to feel like a voyeur seeing the parts of Snape's life that nobody else knew about.

Pain doused and body invigorated, Harry wasn't surprised that although he'd missed the show, he was still reacting to the results. Snape's backside was a constant feature in his fantasies and he loved the way the corset seemed to frame his narrow shoulders from below. It was a pedestal displaying shoulder blades and creating the illusion that they were broad by pinching his waist into something inhumanly small.

Below that, Snape's perfectly pert bottom was cut in nearly-crescent halves by the curved line of ruffled lace. Snape. Ruffles. Harry would have found it amusing had he heard mention of the phenomenon. However, he was seeing it for himself and knew that the V-shape of Snape's panties coming around from his sides and disappearing between the tops of his thighs was the sort of thing men started wars to win or protect. Not obscured by full stockings, Harry thanked God and Merlin for the thigh-high stockings and garter belt that allowed him a moment to fixate on the half-exposure of Snape's buttocks. He twitched and yearned. He realized he was biting the knuckles on his right hand.

Harry's eyes ventured lower, surely ready to make a fetish of the back of the man's knees. Severus flung the robes around himself, shocking Harry with the sudden intrusion of black in his field of vision. From the back, Harry saw the robes droop into place and hang from his forearms and waist. He expected the spell from his previous visit that lashed his buttons through their holes in simultaneous fury.

What he got was Severus Snape spinning on his heel to pin him to the bed with a look. Another of his many looks that told Harry to pay attention. Harry gulped. Surely a man couldn't make the robes Harry had seen almost every day since the age of eleven into something worth seeing.

He flicked his left hand up toward his face, turning the inside of his wrist where Harry could see it. Again, the Dark Mark made Harry want to turn away but he was quickly distracted by Snape's long, right fingers curling around the button tucked into his bent elbow. So close to where the seam gathered, he had no problem sliding it through the hole it sat across from. Not so slowly that Harry grew bored, but ages slower than the spell would have done it, Severus worked his way up to his wrist, his eyes lazily fixated on his deft fingers instead of on Harry's grudging writhing.

He finished the right sleeve in much the same fashion, but Harry was no less fascinated.

Then, his hands went to his throat and Harry managed to whisper out an observation.

"No shirt or slacks."

"None. I am a wizard, after all."

"But you're wearing women's underwear!"

"If there were any situation where another was exposed to my trousers, surely the stockings underneath aren't far away."

"But what if..."

"A bully flips me upside-down and shakes me front of the entire school?"

Harry did flinch away, filled with the same sensation seeing the Dark Mark had caused.

"Don't be an idiot. Not a soul would dare. Any that did would be quickly stripped of all their garments and tossed to the squid for a play toy."

"You're scary when you're vengeful." Harry allowed his eyes to float back over to Severus. He wasn't the one Severus had reason to be angry with. He hoped he never would be.

"Thankfully, I haven't been vengeful in a couple of years." There was another sound coming out of Severus. Almost like purring. A hum. He let his eyes flick away from Harry as the hum lazily cut itself into words, "I suppose I have you to thank for that."

Harry's body warmed at the admission, though he only half agreed. He crawled to the foot of the bed. Severus, sensing Harry's mood, stepped close enough to be kissed. Harry wasn't as short while he was on his knees in the floating bed and he found that he liked Severus not needing to lean over to be kissed. He got to rest his hands on unbent shoulders atop a straight spine. It was interesting to feel Snape's rigid posture melting under his attention instead of being prefolded for the sake of matching heights.

Losing time due to the nude boy wrapped around him, Snape did use a spell to finish buttoning his robes. Harry gave a pout, but seemed to understand why he didn't have the pleasure of watching Snape's fingers dance down his torso in the masturbatory act of dressing.

In the three weeks that followed the two men developed a pattern. Snape left for work. Harry left simply because he couldn't lounge around Snape's apartment all day. They met the moment Snape returned home and went to bed. Sometimes there was some pretense of watching a movie or having dinner, but they never made it further than their "welcome home" kiss on most nights.

Even when they were both completely dressed and Snape's hand was full of floo-powder, Harry couldn't manage to keep his hands off. Severus seemed to allow kissing, but always moved his hips away when Harry tried to press against him. He needed to get to work after all.

One morning, wondering how well Snape could resist him, Harry slid their lips apart and buried his mouth beneath the collar of the teacher's robes, biting and licking at his neck. Hard enough to mark. Hard enough to make it irresistible.

Obviously annoyed by Harry's teasing, Severus pushed until there was space between them, wand steadied as if in a duel. Before Harry even remembered that his wand was discarded somewhere in the bedroom, Snape had spelled him naked and flung his nude body onto the couch in a disheveled heap.

Severus swooped down on Harry in a flurry of cloak and robes. His hands dug into the cushions on either side of Harry's body and he planted kisses along Harry's jaw, neck, and chest. Beneath him, the younger man squirmed and moaned. He cried out as his nipples were bitten and teeth were scraped down his abdomen. Harry was fighting against the pleasure to keep his eyes open. He wanted to see his professor, dressed as his professor, nipping down his body like a shameless pederast. When Severus finally stood, they were both achingly hard. Harry could even see the lump in the front of his perfectly tailored robes, tugging against the taut fabric and the line of shining buttons.

"Fuck. Fuck. How the fuck am I supposed to survive the day?" Harry asked Snape as he lie panting and even dripping from the previous moment's activities.

"Such a dirty mouth, Potter. If only I could keep you in my office all day."

"To fuck between classes?"

"Perhaps... I'd mostly like to spell a ring around the base of your cock. I'd watch you squirm and hear you beg between classes."

"Sick fuck."

"You enjoy this."

"Perhaps."

Severus’s eyes flashed at Harry’s impertinence and he pointed his wand at Harry's prone form. Chest heaving from the sudden work out, Harry tensed but didn't summon his wand. He was curious about his professor's next move. He even smirked at the idea that he was thinking of Snape as a teacher in that moment.

Brow perking at the smirk, Severus summoned Harry's undergarments from the previous night. He was almost glad of having spelled the two of them naked before bed. After all, for some horrible reason the boy had chosen to adorn himself in an atrocious, red and gold ensemble.

"I'm not a fan of ribbons." the professor explained as the gold, silk bows on the floating garments untied themselves as if tugged by an unseen hand.

Having entirely expected the ribbons to fly into the rubbish bin or burst into flames, Harry was more than a little surprised when the gold bled out of them, changing them to a lusterless grey, before they shot toward his crotch. Harry yelped and scrambled backwards on the couch, bumping his head on the arm before rolling off onto the floor.

Despite his best efforts, the ribbons wrapped around the base of his cock and the pressure was immediate and unbearable. Then, he felt scratchiness over his nipples. Severus Snape had decided to transfigure the entire ensemble into a lacey, green shift.

"I want my bra and knickers back when you're done." Harry threatened. "And I want them to be red and gold... with ribbons. Like they were."

Severus, still standing next to the couch, only looked down at him with a perked brow. Harry, lying with his legs flung wide and his glasses crooked on his face, knew that his threats were amusing their target instead of intimidating it.

"You're going to be late for work, Severus." Harry said as he picked himself up from the polished floor. He wanted to sound firm and convincing, but his tone, as well as the erection jutting from the top of the green thong, betrayed his lust.

Severus pursed his lips and flicked his wand, again. Harry had never been face down in a couch cushion with his hands tied behind his back, legs spread, and ass in the air. He smiled into the cushion before turning his head so he could breathe. Apparently, there really was a first time for everything.


	4. Chapter 4

   Severus shoved a hand into the small of Harry's back, forcing him to bend his knees into the sofa and put a dip in his spine.    
  
    "I believe you begged for a little roughness right before your first time with me." Severus started.  Harry heard the stretching sound of a transfiguration spell, but couldn't turn to look in the position Severus had pushed him into.  He didn't dare move.  
  
    "Asked for.  Way more than a little. And... first time with -anyone- I'll have you know."  
  
    "I never took you for such a bratty bottom."  
  
    "You've always called me a brat!"  His spine tried to straighten and he felt an unnatural tug in his shoulder blade due to the way his hands were tied.  
  
    "I should make a gag, as well." Severus murmured, seemingly to himself, as he shoved Harry back down into the cushion.  Harry felt the man's long fingers thrust between his wrists, turning both hands so that the pressure on his upper-arms wasn't so painful.  
  
    Another heard but unseen transfiguration spell and Harry felt the man straddling his hips.  It wasn't the kind of position that placed the Potion Master's cock against his buttocks.  He was sitting in the middle of Harry's back pulling a ball-gag over the younger man's face, securing it in his mouth before fastening it behind his head.  Though the stretching of his jaw was intense and uncomfortable, Harry couldn't help but be distracted by how much the pressure on his back made him itch. He wished he could have requested a better fabric before he was gagged, but figured Snape wouldn't have done it for him, anyway.  
  
    "Close all fingers but your thumbs." Snape instructed.  When Harry obliged, he pulled at both of the boy's thumbs.  
  
    "This is our safe-signal.  Were you not gagged for your impertinence, we would use a special word." The man explained.  Harry's cock jumped at the sound of Snape's professor tones, knowing the man was still wearing his teaching robes.  
  
    "If ever you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, close your hands into fists and extend both thumbs.  I will stop and immediately unbind you.  Do not be afraid to use this signal, Harry.  I will never think you weak."  
  
    Harry wanted to smile at being called strong and "Harry" of all things, but he was too busy being amused by the thought that Snape didn't know or at least refused to use the phrase "Thumbs-up."  
  
      
    Severus slid off of Harry's back and Harry could almost feel his condescending glare as he stood somewhere off to the side, no doubt scrutinizing his prey.  The younger man tried his best not to make noises or fidget.  However, no matter how arousing the situation, the position, gag, and clothing were downright uncomfortable.  
  
    Severus allowed enough time for Harry to become thoroughly engrossed in his discomfort.  Right as Harry finally started to tug at his bonds and unbend his knees, he swooped up behind the boy with an upward swing of his right arm.  A swing that allowed the leather paddle in his hand to connect with the boy's left buttock.  Ah, so that was what the first transfiguration spell made.  
  
    Severus was satisfied with the way Harry's body nearly fell tot he floor as he screamed against the gag.  
  
    "We have a safe signal, Mr. Potter."  
  
    Harry kept his hands balled into fists, thumbs almost completely hidden, and managed to reassert the posture Snape had pushed him into.  Severus backed away to watch the red welt fade to pink.  
  
    "Ah, defiant and prideful, I see." the professor observed as if he'd never met Harry before.  "What a pleasure it will be to break you, insolent child."  
  
    Just as the sting of Snape's first strike began to settle into a deep burn, Snape took another stride forward and placed an equally shocking blow on the unscathed cheek.  Then, he began to alternate.  The steady tirade of hits left Harry's cheeks streaked and bottom swollen.  He could barely maintain his breath with the gag stoppering his mouth and tears running down his face.  Yet, his thumbs didn't move.  
  
    "...and the signal?" Severus asked, his voice dropping character and showing concern.  He rubbed the smooth, leather paddle against Harry's inflamed rear.  The touch, no matter how light, reignited the subsiding pain of his recent aggressions.  He used that harsh, physical cue to offset his verbal tenderness.  He was still Professor Snape and Mr. Potter was still being pleasurably punished.  He hoped pleasurably.  
  
    He gave the boy a few moments to sniffle and shake.  He even watched as the fists unclenched and fingers stretched.  After a bit of wiggling, Harry was back in the established position and his hands were fists.  The thumbs were never extended.  Both their chests expanded with pride.  
  
    "My, my, Potter.  Such endurance.  I'll admit I'm more than a little surprised."  
  
    Harry made no attempt to comment, but he was just as surprised.  Snape had hit him!  He'd allowed Snape to hit him!!!  He'd... enjoyed it.  Even as most of the nerves in his body cried out in agony, there was some underlying thrill he couldn't shake.  
  
    "You'll stand, now." Snape commanded as the restraints melted from Harry's wrists.  Awkwardly and without assistance, Harry pushed himself up on nearly sprained arms and exhausted legs.  He wobbled slightly as he stood before his lover.  
  
    What he saw was Severus Sydney Patrick Snape staring at him with lusty eyes.  Every inch of him was covered in heavy, draping, black fabric except his face, hands, and the cock he stroked slowly as if it was the most natural thing in the world, to do.  
  
    "I'll be late, boy." Severus scolded, his hand slowly ghosting along the rigid and veiny rod that stuck proudly from the front of his teaching robes.  "In fact, I'm already late."  
  
    Severus snapped his fingers and the gag in Harry's mouth turned into a button.  He warnedt he boy not to choke on it and the tiny disc began to float toward him.  He caught it in his hand and continuing to manipulate his surroundings without flick, swish, or incantations, the button reattached itself to his robes.  He caressed his cock with an appreciative gaze as Harry worked his aching jaw.  
  
    Harry could feel his knees throbbing with pain from his time spent bent down on the couch.  He could feel the scratchy camisole rubbing ever so slightly over his nipples as he shivered.  The heat they'd gotten showered & dressed in was long gone.  Snape always turned it off as they left for work.  Harry didn't know any wandless spells to warm his body & he was quite sure Snape wouldn't give him a bit of comfort, no matter how much he begged.  
  
    He could feel his own cock straining against the tiny thong.  It was another outfit made of stiffly woven threads.  He was sure that even that detail had been a part of Snape's diabolical plan.  
  
    "Well, you are quite late.  Don't let me keep you, sir." he finally said, his face automatically falling into a smirk.  
  
    Snape's eyes narrowed.  
  
    "Did you learn nothing from the prior demonstration, boy?"  his voice was a dangerous growl.  Harry had to wonder if they were really still playing.  
  
    "I learned that you probably have an impressive golf-swing and I need to learn some yoga if you're going to keep tying me up."  
  
    "Ah, like so many things, you've decided to make a mockery of your punishment."  
  
    "I'm not mocking you."  
  
    "I believe I'm an appropriate judge of whether or not I'm being mocked."  
  
    "Do I get to be the judge of whether or not I'm being fucked?"  
  
    "Ah..." Severus opened his mouth to respond, but soon closed it as if he'd predicted Harry's next remark and realized that's not at all what the boy had said.  
  
    Said "boy" looked just as shocked as his lover and incredibly embarrased.  The blush that spread over his cheeks was alluring and, Snape hated to admit it even to himself, endearing.  His hawklike nose scrunched slightly as he smiled.  
  
    "Is that... a... yes... sir?" Harry asked, one of his toes dug into the ground, nervously.  
  
    "Is what?"  
  
    "That... um... smile." Harry gulped.  He was almost sure Severus was the kind of man that prided himself on never smiling and wouldn't like it pointed out that he often did.  
  
    Instead, the smile grew and brought a laugh along with it.  
  
    "Knees, Potter."  
  
    "What?!"  
  
    The ribbon at the base of his thin, pink cock tightened as if pulled by unseen hands.  Despite the delicious sensation that came along with the tug, he wilted considerably.  He wasn't sure if it was due to the physical sensation or his sudden anger at his lover.  Still, he bent.  The descent was made awkward by his tied hands.  
  
    Severus at least had the decency not to smile as he slid his hard cock between Harry's lips.  Obediantly, Harry sucked the purpling head, his tongue flickering over the leaking slit.  He was annoyed by the knowledge that Severus would probably leave him hard and aching, but turned on by the moans that came from above his head.  
  
    His own cock twitched in desperation as Snape's fingers, tangling in and pulling on his hair, sent jolts of pleasure through his body.  
  
    Harry alternated between moaning and gasping for air as his professor pulled out between deep, slow thrusts.  
  
    "Professor Snape?" Harry asked as he opened his eyes, realizing the man had pulled out, but not returned.  
  
    He looked up to see Severus with slightly bent knees, jerking himself frantically and aiming at his chest.  It had been disgusting, at first, but Harry had quickly gotten used to and even started to enjoy Snape soiling his precious garments with lust.      
  
    "Say it... say it, again." Severus sounded like he was begging.  
  
    With a grin, Harry realized he was.  
  
    "P... Pro... Professor Snape." Harry stammered, wondering if that was really what his boyfriend was asking for.  
  
    "Mr. Potter... what should I do.... do to make sure..." He trembled and moaned, needing to lick his lips and swallow before continuing. "What should I do to make sure you're properly punished?"  
  
    Harry watched, mesmerized as a sheen of sweat glistened on Sevrus's face and his hand, slick with the shine and froth of precum, continued to race up and down his thick erection.  He knew what Severus wanted to hear.  He knew what would bring him off.  He knew that it was exactly what he wanted, too.  
  
    "Professor Snape, I need you to show me what a bad boy I've been."  He stated firmly, knowing the faux-pornstar coo would only serve to annoy his lover.  "I need you to dirty my new clothes with your cum.  I'll be so embarrased by it.  Humiliated.  You're so good to me.  So willing to always teach me a lesson, sir."  
  
    Almost immediately, Snape's knees buckled and his free hand launched to Harry's shoulder just to hold himself up.  Harry tilted his own head back, trying to get a glimpse of the older man's face as he felt hot ropes of jizz hitting his chest and belly.  The initial burst had even soaked his chin and neck.  
  
    His cock twitched with an answering gush of precum as a single, warm droplet of Snape's cum landed on its tip.  
  
    Severus murmured something that sounded remarkably like "Such a good boy" before kissing Harry on the forehead and backing up to survey his mess.  
  
    "Exquisite."  
  
    "A bit self-congratulatory, don't you think?"  
  
    "I meant that YOU are exquisite... and I had no idea such long words were in your vocabulary."  
  
    "Can't you just give me a compliment without following it with an insult?"  
  
    "I state facts.  You're beautiful and I'm still growing accustomed to the fact that you're not an idiot."  
  
    Harry giggled as Snape chuckled.  
  
    Snape charmed Harry back into muggle attire and was pleased to see a dark dot appear on the grey slacks were Harry continued to ooze.  Glaring at Snape, Harry summoned his wand and cleaned his pants.  
  
    "I'll see you tonight?" Snape asked.    
  
    "Yes, but I'll be really late.  I've got this modeling thing, tonight." Harry explained as he looked down to see if maybe his erection wasn't as obvious as it felt.  It was ridiculously obvious.  
  
    "A night shoot?" Severus asked as he approached the fireplace.  He checked the level on his floo powder and took a bit of it into his hand.  
  
    "Oh, no.  It's a party.  I don't really want to go, but Tomes and I have a contract about me showing up to at least eighty percent of the events they host."  
  
    "A party." Snape stared at Harry without expression.  Since the night Harry lost his virginity to Snape, the man had been incredibly open and the fact that he was obviously closing himself off, disturbed Harry.  
  
    "I... uh... I thought you wouldn't want to go." Harry explained, "It's just something I'm doing for work."  
  
    "Haven't you seen me at Tomes a Billion gatherings, before?  I declined in my RSVP because you didn't mention it to me.  I assumed you weren't going."  
  
    "Well, see what happens when you assume?" Harry asked with a weak grin and worried laugh.  It had occured to him that Snape would receive his own invitation and could decide on his own whether or not he would be going.  He wondered if he'd done something wrong.    
  
    Despite recieving invites due to her position as a Chudley Cannon, he and Ginny had always RSVPed as a couple on Harry's invitations.  He and Severus were different, however.  They weren't going to go galivanting into a ballroom, arm-in-arm and get announced at the same time!  Surely, Snape wanted his privacy. Didn't he?  
  
    "Indeed." Severus grunted, the colorful flames swallowing him as he left without bidding Harry adieu.  
  
    That night, Snape's wards prickled against Harry as he tried to use his key.  He was in the middle of having an internal meltdown over Snape not letting him in, when the door swung open and Severus ushered him inside.  Silently, the two of them walked to the bedroom.  The bed and sidetables were slowly floating back toward the center of the room from the window side.  Harry wondered if Severus had been watching out of the window for him to arrive.  
  
    "I have weekend duties starting before breakfast.  Perhaps we should just rest, tonight." Severus said to Harry as he poured himself a dose of Dreamless Sleep.  Harry watched as he gulped it down.  No matter what Harry's answer was, Snape would be out like a light in minutes.


End file.
